Independence Day

For Independence Day we went out to our friends' house in Sherman (Mel and Nikki, who run my soccer team). There was barbecue, beer, snowcones, a huge blow up water slide, and all the goats you could ever want to play with.

 

At the end, they lit of fireworks in their front yard while we watched from the back. (The kids were scared of the loudness, but I comforted Adam, Shannon comforted Claire, and Adriann comforted Colin, who was a little more comfortable with loud booms and explosions -- of course).

As it is with most of our outings as a family, it was a bit of a blur. Shannon and I hung out with my soccer team while the kids had a blast... but typically when we are out together it's a whole lot of chasing, correcting, feeding, and FINDING our children.

There isn't much more to it except for the pictures. Adam spent most of the time bossing everyone around at the water slide while Claire and Colin gave Stephanie a work out at the regular slide as she poured water on it to make it more fun and did all the heavy lifting of getting them up to the top since the ladder was broken.

 

Ironically, he was in the mood to pose while we were in the car... but then when we got there and I pulled out the camera to take some REAL 4th of July pictures, he bailed on me.

She loved that swing... when Colin asked her if she would let him have a turn, she said "No... but you can pet him."

Then they hit the water slide again... mostly for the slippery tarp on the back side.

I was able to pry Adam away from the water for about 15 minutes to take them over to pet the goats.

Here goat... I have no leaves, but I have a stick.

And then the twins had snow cones....

I was going to stay for a little while after and hang with the soccer team to celebrate my birthday, but it had gotten so dark (and the fireworks rattled him quite a bit) by then that Adam was having a bit of a panic attack about leaving without me, so we went home together. All in all it was a great way to spend the holiday.

OH... we adults did play a human-sized version of Foosball, which was extremely fun. But most of those pictures of me should be swiftly burned and forgotten.