Independence Day 2014

For the past few years, we have had the privilege of getting to spend Independence Day celebrating with a lot of family.  Every year, my parents host a huge party in celebration of the holiday.  We get to hang out with tons of friends and family members, eat yummy food, and watch and participate in fun fireworks.

Here are some photos from our celebration this year.  First, the family photos:

And silly pictures always make me smile!

My sister, her family and mother-in-law and father-in-law

Of course, we did a silly photo with my mom and dad, us "kids", and our children.

And here are just some random photos from throughout the beautiful evening:

My sister and my niece, Lilly

our nephew, Brody

Our niece, Linnea, with her grandfather

Our niece, Kaylee

Our youngest niece, Natalie

Playing in the smoke

Waiting for the parachute fireworks.  They played a game to see who was going to get them.  Our family friend, Rob, and my sister,  Holly and her husband, bought a lot of fun parachutes.  There were night parachutes, parachutes with big army men attached, parachutes with little army men, there were humongous parachutes, and there were a couple that produced 50 mini parachutes after the tiny explosion.  The 50 mini parachutes was such a funny surprise.  We even had a couple of adult races to try to get the parachutes.  

Abbey got a parachute with a little army man.

Linnea was prepared for the loud sounds.

Watching for a parachute

Later, Luke found a great spot for the fireworks show--in the lap of my dad, his grandpa:

As it got darker, we had our usual fun with sparklers and our camera.  Here is Holly, spelling, "hello" with a sparkler.

We learned that the glow bracelets worked pretty well in spelling things as well.  They weren't quite as bright, but they still worked.  Drew took a turn and spelled his name with a glow bracelet:

He also spelled, "Love" with one:

I learned that I didn't have the talent to spell backwards and in cursive.  My normal handwriting isn't even legible to a lot of people, so I am not sure why I thought my backwards cursive with a sparkler would be.  I stuck to taking the pictures.  That is where I am most comfortable.

Blueberry Pickin'

I've mentioned in past posts that we have really been enjoying tending to our little garden.  There truly is nothing like picking ripe fruit or veggies right from the plant and then consuming them shortly thereafter.   When you buy a fruit or veggie in the grocery store, you are buying something that was not picked recently.  It was likely picked quite a while ago, well before it was ripe.  Unfortunately, shortly before a fruit or vegetable is ripe, a plethora of nutrients is dumped into it from the plant.  Picking them before they are ripe actually deprive you of many more potential nutrients and flavors.  This is one of the many reasons we prefer to buy from local farms.

But, off of my soapbox for a moment.  While we were visiting my family, on the morning of July 4, we drove over to a nearby farm to pick blueberries.  Now, blueberries don't really ripen further after they are picked.  So, it is important to pick them when they are ripe.  When they are ripe, you barely touch them and they fall into your hand.  They are super-sweet.  I am telling you--nothing beats eating something directly after picking it!

Abbey can attest to that.  The plan was to pick the blueberry and put the berry right into the bucket.   Abbey followed that rule until she saw me eat one (they don't spray their blueberries with pesticides).   Then, the rule went down the drain.   She saw that as the green light to eat as many as she wanted.

A few minutes prior to this photo, there were a lot more blueberries in that pail!

Luke was serious about his blueberry picking.

I even saw a bird nest with baby birds in it in one of the blueberry bushes.  That is a pretty convenient spot for those birds-super close to a food source!

My dad even enjoyed picking the berries

Our niece, Kaylee, was a blueberry picking star as well.

I caught Brody eating some!

Yum!

And lastly, the photo below is a photo that google "auto-awesomed" by taking several of my photos and turning them an animated .gif.  This was after we told Abbey that she could not eat any more blueberries until after we paid (they encourage you to eat some directly off the bush, but not the amount Abbey was consuming.)

She was saying as she was running that she "wanted to go home."   If she couldn't eat any more off the bushes, she was ready to go home.  We are definitely in the two's folks!

Fun at the Tulsa Zoo

Alrighty--stay tuned for a few "just for fun" posts.   We spent the long "Independence Day" weekend visiting my family in the Tulsa, Ok area.  On Thursday morning, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we decided to go to the Zoo.

Because the weather was perfect (the high was in the upper 70's), the animals were outside enjoying the weather as well.   So, it was a great zoo day for both us and the animals.

Our niece, Lilly, showed me a nice photo spot.  So, of course I took her picture there!

checking out the lions

trying to spot a penguin

Saying "hello" to the Komodo Dragon

Here, they were trying to get as close as possible to the rhinos who were resting near the fence.

This goat made me smile.  He was so tired, and I guess so full, that he didn't move nor did he take another bite.  When he was full, I guess he decided he would just stop chewing (even though there was still grass there).

I knew Abbey would have no fear around the animals.   In fact, my concern was that she may be all over them.  Thankfully though, she was very gentle. 

Luke, who is normally a bit timid around animals, was both feeding and brushing the goats.

I have two more posts from the weekend.  Look for those to be posted over the next couple of days.