Happy Birthday America

Our Fourth of July festivities: (I know, it was like, a week ago.)

Three days of celebrations almost wore us right out!

Saturday:

Harris Pond ward breakfast (Jared's parent's ward), put on by his talented mother. 

The food? Sooo delicious. The weather? Sooo cold. Everyone was bundled up in blankets, nobody was swimming. Let's hope that it was just a fluke and that Burley actually believes that it's summer from now on. 

Gracie loved riding in the boat with Dad and "Sampa", despite the frigid temperature.

Gracie and I hesitantly went with my Mom, Kristin, Jonas and Lia to the Rupert parade, thinking we wouldn't stay very long because it was freezing cold....but it warmed up! By afternoon we took off our coats, it started feeling a little bit like July.

We loved the parade! We saw lots of people we knew, got lots of candy, a couple popscicles, and Gracie even got a firefighter hat. She wore it faithfully through the whole parade, and her eyes were glued to everything that passed, especially the horses.

 That afternoon Gracie got to swim with her cousins...loved it. She didn't want to get out after over an hour.

We didn't have a swim diaper, only a normal one...so we called her "JLo-ghetto booty". Her diaper was HUGE!  

Mmmmm....nothing like Fourth of July Barbecues. YUM! El thought he could eat this whole thing, but it didn't happen, luckily.

We have to have homemade ice cream on the fourth, it's tradition...

We couldn't get enough of the delicious raspberry "eye-peem" as Gracie calls it.

That evening we headed over to the Jones' for their awesome firework show and a cookout. They always get really fun fireworks that go up in the air...this year's show was especially entertaining!

Here are the guys lighting some of the little ones...

Sunday: 

Fireworks at my parent's house..the kids loved the sparklers, and I was a little bewildered by the snakes...I've never seen them before!

Gracie wasn't so sure about the fireworks, especially the loud ones, I think she'll appreciate them more next year. :)

That night we took El and Kris over to the river and met up w/Jared's parents, Jason and Jenn, and her parent's at the RV park for the city fireworks. They were pretty good this year, but the live band that was playing really loudly close by wasn't so much :) it was fun, and the kids loved the fireworks. My favorite part was whenever one firework went off, Gracie would say, "Mom! Mom!" (I'd say, "what Gracie?"), "Fireworks!!!" and point to them. She and Claire kept saying, "Another one! Another one! Another one!" over and over :) 

Monday: 

Steadman's water slides with the extended Jones clan.

We'd never been there. Gracie wasn't so sure....Grandpa took her a couple of times on the slide, then both Grandma and Grandpa Jones took her. She fought me when I put her back on the tube, kind of whimpered the whole way down, then at the end said, "SO fun!" so who knows if she really liked it?

I even took her down once, big belly and all....

She did the same thing with me...kind of cried on the way down, but then said "FUN!" at the end. Goofy girl. It was fun catching up with all the cousins and family. They're a fun bunch. 

My sister and her kids came up on Sunday and stayed for a week! We did so much, but I didn't get a lot of pictures. One day we left our kids with their Grandma's and went to the temple together. It was wonderful, of course. We got some ice cream afterward at Cold Stone that was to die for...so that was an added bonus :) Love spending time with my sista. 

Through all of these festivities and fun events, Jared was working like a mad-man on our house. We had tons of good help from family members too! It's been a crazy busy time of life, but exciting at the same time. The house is coming along...slowly but surely. He and I also spoke in church yesterday for the first time in our new ward. We were both a little stressed out about it, but everything went well. 

Here we are after painting last Saturday. Yes, I am a very pregnant lady, I know.

To end this very long, picture-full post, I'll throw in a few more pictures that Jared got of a few of our adorable nieces and nephews over the last week. Look how cute these kiddo's are....