4th of July

We made it up to PA for the 4th of July weekend! We rented a cabin where Sara and Murph have their camper, then hosted a family gathering since we had air conditioning. It was nice to spend time with Sara and Murph and see family for a little bit! With Crystal and Ryan's son, Logan, and Dan and Shelby's boys:Willow loves toddlers!

We found a good shady spot to watch the parade:

Patti was pretty sure she needed to walk in the creek:

Campground BINGO:

When you never have any BINGO luck, you use your markers for other entertainment:

Willow and I went over to Crystal and Ryan's house to hang out then watch the town's fireworks show. They put on a great show!

4th of July

Willow got back from her Belize trip and jumped right into working hours at the TNT fireworks tent to raise money for her trip to the Dominican Republic. Last year we worked A LOT and got paid $2.30/hr (YIKES!). This year we worked A LOT and got paid closer to $10/hr thankfully. I worked 92 hours and Willow got in 44 once she got back. Last summer we did one overnight stay and this year we had two. They were our last two ;) I would call it "staying overnight" rather than "sleeping overnight" since there's not much sleep to be had between the heat, train horns at all hours, semis downshifting at the nearby intersection, and even bird songs that seemed too loud somehow. It's an experience for sure!Our setup inside the tent, on an air mattress, locked in our car with the windows cracked. Don't mind that we're surrounded by explosives!! 😥

Despite the heat and long hours, I do enjoy getting to know the kids that she goes to the DR with. They enjoy playing games and raise the most money when they hold signs in the parking lot. People can be so generous!! 

Willow or I were at the tent from 8am - 4pm but we did enjoy grilling hamburgers and setting off a few fireworks in the backyard. We walked up to the cemetery to watch the town's fireworks show and Willow was excited to watch with a friend from church. 

We got a bigger one that was on a base that spun but it must've not been even enough on the grass so, unfortunately, it didn't spin for us. It was still a good show. The neighbor behind us clapped from his porch afterwards :)

From the town's show:

4th of July

We enjoyed getting together with Nana, Grandpa, and the Caldwells for a lunch cookout on the 4th of July! 

We headed up to the cemetery to watch the fireworks display in our part of town. Maybe next year we'll fight the crowds and head downtown so we can see the whole show since we only see above the treeline from where we watch. The people across the street from the cemetery actually put on a great show while we waited. After working the TNT fireworks tent, we have a greater appreciation for the cost of fireworks (and know that ones that leave the ground are illegal to buy in VA!). We should've tossed $20 at them!

For the 2nd year, we bought a few fireworks from the youth group tent. Chris was armed with the hose last year and this year as well. Before we headed to the cemetery, we'd seen Whiskers in the backyard with a few baby skunks so we're hopeful that the fireworks scared them off (we haven't seen them since then, at least!!). They were nose to nose, so apparently they were too little to spray (thankfully!!).

This octopus was pretty cool!!

Owen also was pretty excited about this sword. At the tent, Addi was the pro at selling them. Owen was pleased though!

Willow made a yummy, festive pie! It sure is nice to have a 2nd baker in the house!

End of Summer Fun

I love when the kids help with puzzles! This one was two-sided!

Hopefully this will be erased from my family members' minds (insert head slap). I saw that there was a hot air balloon festival an hour away. Since we didn't have any plans, I thought it'd be fun to go check it out since the kids had never been in one before. They also do a night glow after dark which I thought would be fun to see and didn't mind if the kids were up a bit later since it's summer time! Well...we got there and didn't see the field full of hot air balloons like I'd seen on their facebook page. Apparently it was too windy so a lot of them didn't even lay out their hot air balloons. The one that we did see inflated had a really long line that ended up closing shortly after we arrived. I kept asking around to see if they were still going to do the night glow but no one could give me a guarantee. We hung out playing games and eating fair food while still sporadically asking about the night glow. We got optimistic when we saw more balloons being laid out and even walked up to one who said that they were planning on doing it. About 30 minutes later the field was emptying out so we decided to throw in the towel and head home. I saw on their facebook page later that they'd cancelled it due to an approaching storm. There was no announcement made there that we heard. Soooo....we drove an hour there and back to have fair food for dinner. Ugh! 

Our favorite game these days is called Incohearent Family. You have to read off of a card like this, then translate into what the real phrase is. We get quite a hoot out of it!

Here's what the kids sounded like guessing based on the word card above:

Here's what it was like to read the silly phrases. 

We enjoyed getting together with Hannah and Hunter when we could!

Owen will bike with me....if it involves ice cream!

This poor little deer wandered through our side gate and got lost in the backyard! That's never happened before!

We enjoyed getting together with Aubrey at Linda's pool!

They replaced one of our favorite wooden playgrounds where we often meet Hannah and Hunter. We enjoyed checking out the new, improved version!

Our friends have access to box seats at the minor league baseball team's games. They were gracious to share tickets for a fireworks game with us. Unfortunately it was rain delayed an hour but while everyone else was hiding under the stadium, we had box seats that were covered! 

And a beautiful double rainbow after the rain!

This guy sure was entertaining to watch!

The fireworks were extra late due to the rain delay...poor neighbors!!

This may be my favorite picture of Willow these days :)  I took the kids and a couple friends to the trampoline park to beat the heat!

My school got an awesome new book vending machine and Willow helped me fill it so it'd be ready for when the students arrive. I wish they had one at their schools too!

 

Willow has been asking about getting more makeup (high school....sigh...) so I took her to the Clinique counter at the mall to learn from someone who knows what they're doing ;)

A beautiful, home-grown bouquet!

The treehouse doesn't get used much these days, so when Chris noticed the upper level start to pull apart from the tree, he took it down instead of adjusting it. Sniff sniff...