4th of July Weekend

For the 4th of July weekend we went up to Utah County to hang out with our cousins.  Randy's brother and his family came out from Florida to visit so we wanted to go see them while they were here.  The cabin was being used by someone else so Rhett invited us to stay at their house.  Randy switched work to have Monday off instead of Friday so he worked most of Friday before heading to Lehi.  We got to Rhett's just as it was getting dark.  Their neighbors do a fantastic firework show every year on their street so we just sat out on the front lawn and watched the show.  It lasted at least 45 minutes.  They spent $3 or $4,000 and the show was just as good as the Stadium of Fire I think and we didn't have to worry about the traffic.  The only problem is that Mia HATED everything about the fireworks.  She didn't like the sounds or the looks.  Mia and I sat most of the time in the living room with Mickey turned up loud to try to drown out the sounds but she still heard them.  She cried with her hands over her ears for at least a half hour straight.  I couldn't do anything to make her feel better.  I finally got her to bed as soon as the fireworks stopped and she went to sleep.  We stayed out and let the kids play for a while longer before we all went to bed.

Saturday morning we just let the kids play and have with each other.  That afternoon we went to lunch together then all went to a movie.  We don't take the kids to movies very often so they were pretty excited.  We saw Rio 2 which was pretty cute.  It was incredibly hot in the movie theater so while Rhett & Jolene went to do some errands, we went to McDonald's to get an ice cream and cool off.  We always seem to pick the hottest times to go up north. :(  That evening, Misty and her family came down and we all went bowling.  We all had a good time.  It was nice to spend time all together.  It's just too bad that Ryan & Rochele had other things going on that night so they couldn't make it, otherwise we would have had everyone there.  Misty had to go home after bowling so we weren't able to get a pic with the whole fam.

Mia & Maddie had fun doing hair & makeup

Daddy showing Mia how to bowl

We had to have 3 lanes to fit us all on

Mia loved her bowling shoes...they're actually cute at that size Ü

Aspen, Taya & Mia had fun together

Our whole group

It was after 11 by the time we got back to Rhett's and got the kids to bed.  Ryan was there when we got there but they already had their kids in bed so we didn't get to see them til Sunday morning but we stayed up and visited with Ryan & Rochele til way too late.

Sunday morning we all went to church then came back and had a little lunch and let the kids play all afternoon while the adults visited.  It was a pretty lazy afternoon.  After dinner, we all went outside and played kickball.  After we got tired of that,  we had a big family soccer game.  We have some pretty competitive people in the family so it was quite the game.  Rochele even broke her toe.

Alex & Zac playing kickball

Halen, Zac, Ty, Maddie, Rhett & Alex playing kickball

It's a good thing Rhett has a big backyard to play soccer in

This is what Mia did every time she heard fireworks

Mia & Taya had so much fun together

Mia loved the tire swing

Once again, it was a late night getting the kids to bed but oh well.  They were having too much fun together to make them stop.  Monday morning we packed up to head for home.  It was hard to pry the kids away from their cousins.  It's too bad some of them live so far away but maybe they'll move back closer to us soon.  We're just happy to be able to spend time with any of our cousins any time we can.

Before hitting the road, we promised we'd take the boys to Trafalga to go mini golfing and of course we had to stop at Whistle Wok for lunch.  It was such a fun weekend.  Just missed grandma & grandpa but they've been on their mission for almost 11 months now so 18 months will be here before we know it and hopefully we'll get to go visit them one more time before they come home.