4th of JULY

 We had a great 4th of July this year.  We started out introducing the boys to sparklers for the first time.  I thought for sure Tyler would be scared, but he loved them and had no fear.

 Brayden on the other hand was a little unsure at first, but he got the hang of it!

Sadly on their last sparklers of the night, they both somehow burned a finger. It's because they were getting too close to each other and trying to sword fight with them. BOYS! Literally Brayden started crying and within seconds Tyler did too.  Guy and I couldn't help laughing (just a little) as we carried them both screaming inside.  It's just how most things end in our house.  But they recovered quickly when popsicles were mentioned so it was all good.

 On the 4th we took the boys to a parade in the morning.  It was not the most exciting of parades, but the kids didn't seem to care.  We played some cards before and I endured the long game of War with Brayden while Guy and Tyler made up their own game and went on a few walks.

 Not wanting Guy to take a picture of him.  He spilled red slushie all over his shirt right before this.  Yes, we were SO ready for the parade to start at this point.

 Brayden with all the goodies he scored.  I've never been to a parade where they threw out so many beads.  Brayden was about to fall over with all that weight around his neck!

 We came home and took naps and swam in the afternoon and then headed to Clearwater for their firework show.  They shoot the fireworks off from the bridge that takes you to the beach so we lucked out and found a pier out on the water where we watched them. It was right in front of the bridge so it was an awesome view.  The only thing better would have been to be on a boat out in the water.  Wouldn't that be the best way to see fireworks?!

 These are a few pictures Guy took. Tyler and I didn't actually get to see the firework show this year because he all of a sudden has decided that he is afraid of fireworks.  Not sure where this came from (we see them at disney all the time), but he flipped out big time.  He kept screaming over and over, "I need to go to sleep in my bed" once they started.  Haha, we have NEVER heard those words come out of his mouth!  So Tyler and I took a little walk during the show and let the big boys enjoy it.  Maybe next year??

July 4th Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend. We spent lots of time swimming, relaxing, and of course watching fireworks. We went to 2 shows and had better luck with our second time. The first one we ended up sitting too far away so the next night we sat right where they shot them off and they were right over our heads! Brayden had fun singing 'Happy Birthday' to America over and over and over again all weekend. We thought they were gonna cancel the fireworks the first night, but luckily the weather cleared up just in time. It was really nice too because the earlier rain storm had cooled things down a bit so we enjoyed that!

We sat right by the small airport where all the planes and jets took off and landed. The boys loved it and I thought of my dad the whole time. He would have loved it too!
Waiting for the show to start. We didn't realize we were facing the wrong way...haha! We just followed everyone else! Oh well, we saw the show from the car. The boys had fun with the light sticks once it got dark.
And like every good firework show, the traffic to leave was ridiculous so both the kiddos fell asleep as we inched our way out. Fun night though!
We went to a parade which the boys loved. It didn't have much in it but I guess if they throw out candy it's a success to the kids! Playing Go Fish and Old Maid before it started was my favorite part. Brayden would freak out if he had the old maid in his hand and he quickly learned the trick of sticking it up a little higher in his hand of cards so it would get picked! :)

I felt like we needed to do something festive so we made these strawberries that my Aunt Stacy made with us our first 4th here in Texas. You just melt white chocolate chips, dip them in, and then coat the bottom with blue sprinkles. Pretty easy and yummy :) Brayden was a great helper!

Seriously, I love fireworks! They just make me so happy! :) Our second time going made up for our first night since we sat so close. We weren't sure if Ty would love the fireworks or hate them at this age but he LOVED them. He would clap and point the whole time and watched mesmorized. I was happy to find out they do a firework show every friday night over Grapevine lake by us so I think we'll have to head over and watch them again this summer. Hope everyone else had a great 4th! We are so grateful to live in this beautiful country!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Hill visit Texas!

We had a great time this last week with Guy's parents visiting from Oregon! It was so fun to see them and have them all to ourselves. Kaeti and Kenzie came with them and hung out with their other cousins that live here in Texas so it was fun to get to see them for a bit too! They are the cutest girls! We had lots of fun just hanging out and spending time together.

Brayden and Grandpa had a special project they worked on all week which was putting together this alien cutout thing from a book. I was impressed that they could put it together cause there were so many little pieces!

Here's BB with the alien thing they made. He loved it and I have to say it is really cool! Don't worry, I'm sure all grandkids will get to experience this since Grandpa Hill requested 6 more books :)

The boys played lots of basketball together and Tyler cried every time they took him out of the room and left him on his own. He wanted to be part of the action!!

We left early Friday morning and went to San Antonio for the 4th of July weekend. It was seriously so much fun and we made some great memories. We went to the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park which dates back to 1718. I loved it and it was really cool to learn about the history there.

Plus I got my stamp in my passport book which made me excited! Guy's dad got a book too so he's collecting the stamps now too :) Here's me with my book...I know, I'm a nerd!

Here we are inside one of the missions

Brayden and Grandpa by an old oven that they used

The San Jose Mission

Brayden and Mommy

This picture makes me laugh because BB was pouting because I wanted to take his picture again!! I'm so mean! I just thought it was a cool old door...

Guy and BB by the church entrance. It was really cool to see all the details up close

Guy's parents checking out the entrance

Pointing to the old paint designs on the side of the building

The boys by an old well

Brayden got another Junior Ranger badge here! Here he is saying the Junior Ranger pledge!

The Ranger pinned his new badge on for him

And BB pretended he was a real park ranger

We also stopped by the Alamo after the Missions, but it was seriously SO crowded so we didn't stay long

After that we went down to the riverwalk which is one of the coolest places in San Antonio, I think. It's like an underground little city with shops and restraunts and a canal going through it

We ate some yummy mexican food at Casa Rio and then took a boat ride down the canal which was a lot of fun!

Cute little Ty on the boat

The rest of the crew enjoying the ride and tour

Here's Ty back at the hotel... I was freaking out because he's figuring out how to push his knees up. I can tell this one is gonna be a handful!

And here he is getting mad but doing a baby pushup. I am seriously impressed since I can hardly do those!

We woke up early on the 4th of July so Guy and I could run in a 4 mile race. We found out the beginning of May that we both made the lottery this year for the St. George Marathon in October. So we have been training to get ready for it and thought this race seemed like a fun way to get a run in. We just took it easy and enjoyed the race even though it was SO hot!

Here we are on the bus on the way BB and Grandpa on the bus too

pinning on our numbers...we barely made it there in time to run

Grandpa and Brayden hanging out while we were running

I was seriously dying cause it was so hot! Guy was nice and stayed with me even though he could have finished so much faster! What a good husband! :)

Here we are after we finished with our boys!
Brayden was so proud of his daddy!

It was a fun little race and it got us excited for our marathon coming up...We've got lots of running to do to get ready for it!! :)

After the race we went to the Natural Bridge Caverns and went on a tour of the cave. Brayden liked the dinosaurs they had out front the best...go figure

He was very proud that he climbed to the top of the dinosaur by himself!

The Cave was so big and was really cool. It was 70 degrees in there which was so nice compared to the over 100 degree weather we had outside. But it was 99% humidity in the cave which made it seem hotter.

Family pic inside the cave...I'm wearing my new race shirt! yay!

The cave was pretty amazing. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to discover something like this! This cave was discovered in the 1960's.

Just our luck...both the boys fell asleep during the tour so we had to carry them!

But we left it up to Guy and his dad to do that! BB and Ty are heavy!!

We all had a great time

This is the best picture I could get of my boys in their 4th of July outifts...Ty is being strangled. Poor kid...

Happy 4th of July!!

Tyler holding the flag on his own!

We went to the King William Historic District before Fireworks and walked around and saw all the old German houses that were built in the 1800's.

It was really fun to walk around and some of the houses were just amazing

Guy and Ty...we got stuck in traffic on our way to fireworks so we missed them and had to watch from the car. But it worked out ok since both the boys were fast asleep!

On our last day, we stopped at the San Antonio Temple before church

The grounds were closed but we took lots of pictures from outside the gate

Our happy little family

Grandma and Grandpa with the boys

Just the two of us!

Smelling all the pretty flowers
Posing for mommy! :)

We had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa here and I'm pretty sure we wore them out! But it was fun and it was so hard to say goodbye. Brayden cried and I spent the rest of the day trying my best to cheer him up. We all had a great time and loved getting to spend so much time with them and doing so many fun things. We'll always remember our trip to San Antonio!!!

Thank you guys SOOO much for coming! We'll have to plan another trip with you guys to get some more stamps!!! ;)

We love you!