4th of July

This year we went to Wichita for the 4th of July weekend. Almost every year the Amey family gets together at Ben's Uncle Virgil's house to shoot off some fireworks and visit (his house is out in the country). Since we didn't leave until Saturday morning and the get-together was that afternoon, we drove straight there. Ben's brother Brian and his family were there, as well as Ben's parents... plus lots of extended family.

I took this in the backyard.

Wyatt, David, Rachel, Lila and their second cousin, Ava

My niece, Nicole, wasn't quite ready for sitting on the steps with the bigger kids, but she wanted to!

The older girls liked loving on Nicole. This was a little wood bridge behind the house that the kids enjoyed playing on. It reminded me of the wood plank my grandma had on her farm. It was 2 boards wide, unlike this bridge which is maybe 7 or 8. It covered the ditch between her yard and the gravel road and led out to the mailbox. We have pictures of all of us cousins lined up on that thing. And we played some good dodgeball on there too.

They had fun jumping off the bridge. Notice Wyatt watching them.

He had to give it a try too!

(Wyatt was having some digestive issues earlier, and one time his shorts took a hit... thus, the uncovered diaper.)

It was humorous to me how Lila seemed more interested in Nicole, and Rachel seemed more interested in Piper. Another case of the grass being greener? Or just loving on your cousin who you don't get to see as much as your sister!

Unfortunately, Piper was tired, so she didn't last very long with the picture taking.

After this, it was too dark to take pictures, and I had to hold Piper (she's a mama's girl). So I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks. Both Lila and Wyatt watched each firework with their hands over their ears. When it was over, Lila would say, "Is is over?" and Wyatt would say, "Let's do that again!!" After the fireworks we continued on to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Wichita.

Lila has discovered a love for roly poly bugs this summer. So she was SO EXCITED when she saw how many of them were crawling around in the back yard. Here she is with a bucket collecting them.

On Sunday night, we decided to shoot off some smaller fireworks with the kids. The men were helping with a fireworks stand to raise money for the church youth, so it was just us ladies and kids. Rachel is holding a bunch of sparklers.

David with his sparkler.

Wyatt doing his sparkler.

Lila and her sparkler.

And Rachel with her sparkler.

Grandma was holding Piper, and we put Nicole in this old playpen so she wouldn't get too close to the fireworks.

A hug while they wait for the next firework. We decided to shoot off one 3 minute variety of firework. Basically it was a little column with a wick that shot a burst of color straight up for about 2 minutes... then let out a piercing screaming noise for about 15 seconds. We didn't know about that last part. Piper started crying, and I think all of the kids had their hands over their ears. Oops. On that note, we were done! :)

Piper in her 4th of July dress that our good friends, the Smiths, got for her.

Isn't she cute? (Yes, it was the same style dress that cousin Ava wore at the farm.)

Grandma had an inflatable pool set up in the back, so the kids cooled off in that a few times.

We let them swim before lunch one time because it was only going to get hotter as the day progressed.

Here's what Grandpa and Piper were doing while they swam. Grandpa did a good job getting her to go to sleep.

Then after the nap, Grandpa grilled burgers for lunch. I looked out the kitchen window, and there was Wyatt keeping him company! They were having a nice little conversation about something :)

Rachel and David came over later, and they all got back in the pool.

At first Rachel didn't want to be splashed, but I think eventually she gave up and started splashing back.

Four in the pool.

Piper found a toy car to play with on the floor.

Lila got a ride on Grandpa after dinner. Ben's Uncle Bill and Aunt Angie came for dinner that night and visited for a little while with us.

Pam went to help that night with the fireworks stand, so she left David and Rachel with us. Grandma read the girls a book at bedtime, but David wanted to look at an airplane magazine with Grandpa. In a few minutes, they were both out! That night was the 4th of July, so starting around 9:30 it sounded like we were in the middle of a war zone with all the fireworks being shot off around us. All of the kids fell asleep easily except for Lila who we caught a couple times trying to look out the window. I finally took pity on her (we don't see fireworks like that in Dallas) and let her come outside for a few minutes before sending her to bed. The next day we left Lila and returned to Texas. 

She finished out the week, and then on Saturday we met in Oklahoma City to get her back. I found this place online that was like a large McDonald's playplace, only it was connected to a gymnastics company. With it being 100 degrees outside, we couldn't play at a park. This worked perfectly to allow the kids a chance to burn some energy before we all got back in our cars to go home.

Rachel going down one of the three slides.

The other fun thing about this place was that adults were allowed on it too!

In addition to the straight slides, there was a curvy slide, balance beam and this bounce area. It was a lot of fun! Lila had a great time during her week with Grandma and Grandpa too. I asked her what was her favorite thing she did while she was there, and she told me "helping Grandma in the garden." Hmm... maybe we should try to put a little garden in our back yard next year? I'm not sure anything would survive our intense summer heat though!