Our 1st Independence Day in Evanston

Independence Day in Evanston!

So much fun was had.  This was Max playing with Melodie and Justin across the table during dinner.

Kade with Sophie.  ALL the kids LOVE SOPHIE!  She's the best dog ever!  

She does tricks and is so calm and so so sweet! Plus they get to give her treats all the time which is a favorite.e

In the morning the kids decorated bikes, and themselves, with balloons and crepe paper, and went on a little childrens parade on this cute trail above the river.  

We even had Jess' cousin and her family  there adding to the fun!

Afterwards we all played down in the river dipping our feet in, skipping stones and finding giant stones to throw in and make the biggest splash!  It was such a nice day!

Special... :)

There was a swear word scratch into the rock.  Kade proceeded to cover it up with other rocks. :)  

I love this kid.  .

Picture of the grown-ups before some made it down to the water.  

Looks like that was where the real party was!

Afterwards we all went across the street to a park--and woo woo--turns out there was an ICE CREAM TRUCK!  (Also we saw a woman get her tongue stuck to her ice cream bar somehow.  It was quite the show.)  The boys all stayed at the park while the girls went back home to where...

A SURPRISE BABY SHOWER was waiting for Melodie :)  

Fun fun!  Emily decorated it real real cute!

Rhett and Afton 'ninja-ing' in the back yard.  It was pretty intense.

Jess misses his bike so so much and was sooooo happy to go for a nice long ride on his dad's bike that afternoon.  His favorite part by far of the whole day!

Luke.

Max after jumping on Andrea...she's a nice aunt.

These two were later employed at the animal store.  They took their jobs very seriously and made sure that each of us got to pick out a couple of animals to keep and take care of.  Aren't they just the cutest cousins ever?  So cute.  (I just recently found out that Rhett hopes to marry Afton one day. When I told him he actually couldn't cause it was against the law, but told him they could be friends, he was reluctantly okay with that.  It's adorable.

Kade, Riley and I learned how to juggle by the expert Justin.

Digging in the back yard....

POP WAR!  You know those little pop things that you throw on the ground and they explode?  Well Grandma had a ton of them and it turned into an all out war!  Ha ha! I know it doesn't hurt but I'm always so so scared to be hit with one.  It was awesome.

The beginning of firework launching.  The boys all held roman candles and they shot into the air.  aaaah.  Later that night we drove downtown and watched the fireworks from the top of the Wellsfargo building.  It was so fun to see how all the kids interacted and played.  Everyone loved having the extra cousins over too.

Here are a few shots that Melodie got of the the boys from that day that I just really liked. :)

The night of the 3rd, with his bomb making skills,Riley put together an amazing bomb.  I SOOO wish I could find the video.  Imagine this:  Riley hollows out an apple, puts his homemade bomb inside. The whole family goes outside to see the big explosion.  We get a fairly far distance from the apple so we won't be shot with apple shrapnel...he lights it and runs away....we wait....we wait some more.  Just when we think it's not going to go...we hear a "pop" and the apple falls over.  Best explosion ever! Bwa ha ha!