4th of July 2015

4th of July this year was so sad. We made the most of it but nothing is quite like being in Utah on the 4th of July. Utah is so extremely patriotic. I love the smell of the fresh mountain air. I love the tradition of it all. But we didn't have a vehicle that was large enough to transport this family of 5 comfortably, Angeluis were in town, and Parker's first day of 2nd grade was 2 days after the 4th of July. We were bummed to say the least but we had fun in our own make shift kind of way.

Angeluis were spending the 4th with her family in Buena Park and we were lucky to be invited to the Braithwaite's block party. So down to Laguna we went. We stopped by my parents house to put Rayleigh down for a nap and Tanner and Parker went van shopping. Jack was so cute! He's such a happy little guy! And he LOVES kisses!

Tanner brought back some Chick Fil A for lunch. Not quite fried chicken by the river but we were making do. We all got dolled up in our best patriotic attire. Then it was off to the block party!

We spent most of the time in the Braithwaite's backyard letting the kids swim. Cali was so excited to see us!

All the little girls in the pool loved to dote over Rayleigh. One girl in particular was especially great with Rayleigh. We felt like we should have paid her or something! She would follow her around and play with her and Rayleigh loved her! The other girls played ring around the rosie and games like that in the pool with her. It was so sweet.

Rayleigh the fearless: attempting to jump off of the diving board.

But who needs a pool when you have buckets!!?! That's what my mom always said! She was so cute playing in these red buckets filled with water.

Babies in buckets!

Pay attention to only me!

So, the crowd out front was a different story. We realized we didn't know a single soul which made the afternoon extremely boring. Plus, all the adults were playing beer pong and other drinking games which proved to be quite awkward. Parker was having a blast with all of the other kids so we held out until dinner time....

We grabbed some Pei Wei for dinner- SO not American. And at this point the kids were so tired. We took them home for baths and then lit some old random fire works we had left over from our Utah days. Holy cow. This was by far the best part of the day. They LOVED the fireworks! And all we had were snakes and flowers! Too bad we didn't have anything better!!!! They were thrilled!

We topped off the night watching the amazing firework show that the City of Laguna Hills put on. We parked at the Talbots and just watched from the street but they were legit! We definitely ended on a high note. We slept at my parents that night and vowed never to miss another Utah 4th of July ever again!!!