4th of July!

Warning, this is a long post because the 4th was a very long day full of fun!

The day before the fourth, I took the kids to see the Arts Festival downtown with my family.

We ate street food, walked around, and had a lot of fun. Nicole's favorite part was getting her face painted.

Of course, the face painted lasted only a very little bit because she couldn't stop touching her face. No matter how tight I pull back her hair, she is always pushing little hairs out of her face, so the butterfly did not last long and when she realized there was paint on her hands she started crying because her hands were dirty. Oh well.

Dano had a lot of fun just looking at all the people there.

It was super hot on this day, so I look all gross.

Marie, Anthon and Damon were there too and Damon was just too cute not to take a picture of.

On the morning of the 4th, we woke up at 5am, got the kids up, and went to see the balloons launch. We stopped and got donuts on our way so that we could eat breakfast while we watched the balloons inflate.

Nicoley loved the donuts so much that she took a bite of every one in the box.

Kristy and Omar met us there and Lindy Mae looked so cute in her 4th outfit.

Nicoley loved the balloons and got to go over and touch some of them as they were inflating.

 Nicole got bored after a little while and played games on the tablet. Apparently balloons are only interesting for so long.

Dan was not interested in the big hot air balloons, but when they raised the target balloons for the javelin competition, he perked right up. "Boon, boon!" (that is Dan's word for balloon)

After the balloons, we went home and slept because 5am is way too early to be awake.

Then, we went to our next event, BBQ at my family's house.

Johnny's wife, Krista, had set up some water toys for the kids and Nicole was very brave and tried them. Until she realized that there was dog poop in the yard and then she freaked out because she was afraid of it and water fun was over.

"What should we do with this watermelon?"
"Let's throw it that way."

 "Hmmm."

 "What are you guys doing out there with that watermelon?"
"I don't know, but lets take pictures."

 "What if I throw it like this and you catch it?"

 "How will I catch it?"

 (the crowd grows to watch)

They ended up throwing it and two people catching it in a towel. It ended in watermelon destruction, but sure was fun to watch.

After the Derington/Chipman BBQ, we moved to our next event. BBQ and Fireworks at Momma Kimball's house.

There were more pools set up at Momma Kimball's so Nicole got to play in water again. But, we had to borrow a swimsuit because we lost Nicole's somewhere between the houses.

It was a really hot day, so Nicole had a lot of fun playing in the water with her cousins.

Dano did not care for the heat... or the water.

 I gave Dan a popsicle to cool off and he loved it, but kept choking himself with the stick.

Carlos played some music and Nicoley started dancing and she looked hilarious.

We hung out until the fireworks started around 10pm and got to listen to the Beachboys from Momma Kimball's front lawn. It was a long and very fun day.