Weekend Update

We spent our Fourth of July celebrating with some of my extended family at my grandparent's farm. It has become somewhat of a tradition for us to go there every other year on Independence Day, mostly because:

a) They have a huge yard, and

b) Fireworks are legal in Kansas.

And my family -- at least, the men in the family -- looove fireworks. When we were younger, the fireworks display consisted mostly of my brothers and cousins shooting bottle rockets and Roman candles at each other and then laughing hysterically about how close they came to blowing their hands off or losing an eye. Nobody ever actually got hurt, although there was one unfortunate incident involving a knocked over firework and my Grandpa's boot.

Nowadays, the display is much more sophisticated and fun for the whole family.

I was interested to see what Lily would think of the fireworks -- at first she was a little iffy about the loud noises, especially the really screechy sounding ones, but eventually she warmed up to them and started clapping everytime she saw a new one. And by the end? She was asleep.

All in all, it was a nice weekend with good food, family, and fellowship. Here are some highlights:

Playing with Grandma F.


Cousin Brice's wife Angie and daughter Elliana

Elliana was not thrilled about sharing her toys...someday soon I'm sure we'll be working on teaching Lily the same lesson!


Lily loved cousin Jonna! She is from Brazil and I may or may not have asked her what they do to celebrate the Fourth of July there....duh...

Logan (my nephew and Lily's cousin) and Brooke (my cousin's daughter and Lily's, I don't know, second cousin?) Are you getting all of these family connections down? There'll be a quiz later :)

The "loot" -- you have no idea how excited Dave was about purchasing the fireworks. Like a kid in a candy store.

Setting up the fireworks -- this is serious business folks -- they had a whole show, complete with a Grand Finale and everything!

First fireworks show!

Grams and Gramps -- our gracious hosts!

Good times were had by all!