4th of July Celebration!

4th of July, 2009, dawned with a fabulous breakfast held by Grandma and Grandpa's ward in Twin Falls. It was a great way to start the day and brought back fond memories of the morning devotional my family always attended when I was a kid. The breakfast potluck was delicious and it was followed by a fun children's parade. Grandma Dodds provided flags for all the grandkids and they loved waving them while walking the parade "route" with all the other children.

After breakfast we went back to Grandma's and set up The Waterslide. We brought down a huge blow-up waterslide that we borrowed from our generous friends, the Fuhrimans. It was an absolute success! Everyone, young and old, had a blast playing on it all day long. It was so much fun to watch the kids all having a good time on the waterslide, but even better was watching all the grown-up "kids" playing!

Dallin wasn't a huge fan of the sprayers, but Brett managed to get him to go down a time or two. He had fun sliding down when the water was turned off.

We thought Jameson would have fun going down too...

...but he wasn't exactly thrilled.

Surely the kiddie pool would be just the thing for him...

...not so much.

Later on, he changed his mind and decided kiddie pools were loads of fun! Especially when he had it all to himself.

The girls were pretty darn fearless when it came to the waterslide, but they were big chicken-livers when it came to the cold water! They kept bringing hot water from inside, pouring it into the kiddie pool, and sitting in there. Later on, they decided that swimming in the downstairs bathtub was the way to go!

Even pregnant Momma decided to give the waterslide a try...

...just once!

We ended the day with the traditional BBQ in the backyard. I really look forward to this every year. I am just a sucker for traditions (and hamburgers) I guess! We had lots more family join us for the BBQ, including Great-Grandma Dodds and a whole bunch of other Dodds cousins from Twin Falls. Of course, 4th of July wouldn't be complete without fireworks, and we enjoyed the traditional fireworks display in the driveway. Dallin was finally less afraid of them this year and instead of spending the whole time with his hands on his ears, he yelled things like, "Yeah, that was cool!" and "That was wicked awesome!" Jameson loved the fireworks and clapped his hands in excitement all the way through. The kids were all ready to drop from exhaustion at the end of the day... just the way we like it.

And finally, just a little bit of Red, White, and Blue lovin' for you...

This is what it's all about.