Day Nine - "The Fourth of July"

On the Fourth of July everyone woke up ready to for the day, which meant all the kids were nuts! So we sent them outside to play.

 While the kids were playing, Chris got all the stuff ready for the kids to tie dye. I didn't get any pictures of it because Markus immediately dumped the entire bottle of blue on the ground before we even had the shirts tied! Joli and Charlotte had a great time, Markus was insane. Next time we will do it without him! After we got everything cleaned up, and Kacie made us another yummy picnic, we headed to the lake! It was quite a bit more crowded than the couple days before, but we had a blast! It was super warm, and the water was too!

 It only took about twenty minutes before the kids were begging for food...

 Markus had a great time digging in the sand, unfortunately he's used to our beach that is never really crowded, and got in trouble SEVERAL times for throwing sand.

 I didn't get too many pictures of the lake because I honestly spent a lot of time in the water! We all had a great time swimming and playing in the sand. After a few hours it was obvious that we were all getting tired, so we decided to head home for a nap. Everyone took a great nap (even Kacie!), so Chris and I were able to get things ready for the evening. Chris had a bunch of poppers for the kids to play with.

 Then he got out the sparklers!

 It's a little nerve racking having Markus hold fire, but he had a great time, and didn't burn anyone or anything!

 Joli, of course, did a great job. She thought the sparklers were a great accent to her dance.

 Charlotte seemed a little nervous, but overall I think she enjoyed it.

 After we had dinner, Chris got the fire going so we could roast marshmallows. Markus was thrilled.

 While he waited for everyone to get ready, Markus played on the slide.

 Then it was time for roasting marshmallows!

 None of them ended up really "roasting" their marshmallows. They all just got them warm and then ate them.

 We had to hurry and get changed before heading to the community center for fireworks. We arrived just in time to get our chairs set up and listen to a quick speech before the fireworks began! It was kind of crazy that we could just walk up and sit down without having to find a spot!

 It was a pretty awesome fireworks show for a small town! The kids had a great time!

 Markus found a nice cuddly spot to watch the show.

After the show we headed back to the car and got there just in time for it to start raining! The best part was that it didn't take us and hour and half of sitting in traffic to get home!! It was a pretty great Fourth of July!