Fourth of July!!

One of my favorite holidays is Fourth of July!!  

 

I love the fireworks, cookouts, swimming, family,

and celebrating this wonderful nation.

This fourth of July was a busy one, but wonderful!!  We started the day with a flag raising ceremony and breakfast a church.  Matt wore his uniform and Dilon participated in the flag ceremony, holding open the door for the boys scouts as they brought the flag out.  Going home from church, Logan tells Dilon, "You did an awesome job holding open the door!!"  

 

I love to seeing sibling love!

Logan refused to put down his cup or his piece of sausage (that is what is in his other hand)!

Dilon took this one for us- didn't he do great!!

We then came home for a little rest- I passed out, which I never do!!  Felt good.

We then went to Kasey's house and hung out with them for a little bit, while the kids played in the water- water guns and slip-n-slide!

....Then we headed for a cook-out with the Shingleton's from church.  They invited the whole ward out to their wonderful home- complete with goats, pond with a jumping platform, and canoes for the kids!!

On the way home we went by the Holly Ridge fireworks!  We were given a tip on a great place to see them without fighting the crowd!  We were told they were right above your head and a great show- they were right over our heads and we were so close that, instead of using the blanket I took to sit on, we used it to cover our heads!!  It was a great show, though,  and we did not have to wait for any traffic- back home and in bed by 10:00!!!

We had a busy, but a great day!!

Kids are funny!

Riding in the car today, Jodie burped and then said, "My mouth tooted!"

Fires

In our area, like so many others in the country, we have had many wildfires!!  Currently we have two that are close to our area.  The smoke plume you see in the pictures above is taken of the one just north of us in Jacksonville (I am standing in our front yard) and then there is another burning just to the south!  We have had many days of ash raining down on us, smoke filled air, and code purple air quality!!!

The firefighters in this area have worked so hard.  Including the two I mentioned we have had 5-6 other fires in this area!!

Thankfully the beach is close by and we can take advantage of the sea breeze during the day- so don't feel too sorry for us!!

Neighbors!!

Leah, Gavin, and Ryder came over to play with us the other day!  We had forts, tents, and boxes everywhere and these two wanted to play house.  So we cut holes for some windows and they played in there forever- occasionally leaning out of their window to say, "Hey!!"

Cub Scout

He is a cub scout too, now!!  Wow!  Eight years old is so big!!

Fun Times

Here is just some recent pictures from Dilon's birthday and other fun times:

 The dress Jodie is wearing in these last pictures was mine when I was a little girl. My Grandmother smocked it. It is JoJo"s new favorite!

She is holding a 5 big fat green caterpillars that she pulled off my tomato plants!

Plum Jelly

I have been, for awhile, wanting to learn how to can!  I have started to do it a couple of times and have gotten intimidated, but I was not going to let some fruit beat me!!

So, when Logan picked a bucket of plums at the stables I decided I was going to give it a go.  Armed with information from the internet, friends, and family I did it.

And...

It turned out wonderful!

Toast for breakfast every morning!!