Family for the 4th

Lincoln, Lauren, Miles, Preston, Avely, Brynn, Kayla, Mason, and Ellie.

The 4th of July is my absolute favorite holiday. It is smack dab in the middle of Summer, there are always fun activities going on, and it is filled with oodles of family and friend time. What's not to love about it? This year was very different without our early morning Freedom Run, Provo grand parade, and the Hale candy drop to fill our day, but we found out first hand that Omaha is a pretty fun place to be for the 4th. We were thrilled when Vance and Lisa decided to make the 6 hour drive and come spend the weekend with us. It got even better when last minute Jeremy and Janessa, who had moved back to Minnesota only the week before, decided to make the trip as well. This is the group of family we have seen the least of over the last few years and it was wonderful to see them all again and meet some of our nieces and nephews for the first time in person. It made my heart so happy to watch my kids playing with their cousins and loving every second of it. It was so fun catching up with Vance and Lisa and Jeremy and Janessa and hearing about everyone's new adventures in life.

First up was the College World Series home run derby followed by going down on the field and watching a spectacular firework show above the stadium. Lisa and I stayed home with the little ones who were too little to appreciate the baseball, loud noises, and late night. Everyone else went and had a great time. It was an action packed game with 115 home runs hit. Jeremy even managed to snag a ball.

The next day we headed to a park for lunch.

 Then home for a water party in the backyard.

 We wouldn't be very good Nebraskans without Corn on the Cob at our BBQ.

 That night we were introduced to how Omaha does fireworks on the Fourth. Everything is legal in Omaha and we had been told it gets pretty crazy, but nothing could have prepared us for the 360 degrees of wall shaking fireworks that would be going off all night. It started early in the week and every night the firework shows got bigger and lasted longer. By the night of the Fourth there was a constant rumble and you could see fireworks going off as far as your eyes could see in every direction. It was a far cry from Utah's firework restricted Cul-de-sac of fire. Miles ran up and down the sidewalk waving his American flag saying "Fireworks are AWE-SOME!" over and over. Ellie only lasted outside for a few minutes before the smoke cloud was more than I was comfortable with her breathing straight into her lungs (remember she doesn't have a nose and mouth to filter like we do). She miraculously went to bed and slept through the chaos. It was definitely a 4th of July to remember.

The next day we braved the crowds and headed to where else than...the Zoo!

 We let the girls have a cousin sleepover on their last night together.

We are so grateful to the Murrays and Reeses for taking the time and effort to come down and visit us. It was seriously the highlight of our summer spending time with all of them. We are so glad that we live a reasonable distance from them now and can't wait to go visit them soon.