Fourth of July

We spent most of the day driving on the Fourth of July, but we were determined to still celebrate.  We whipped up a quick patriotic dinner of flag pancakes before lighting fireworks.  

Scratch that, it looks like fireworks are on hold.  Look at this thunderstorm that came roaring through!  

Ok, the storm has passed. (I hope Cambrie and her friends have found a way to wait out the storm down at the city park.)  Once the rain stopped and the sun set, we pulled out our illegal fireworks and got started.  Some of them were harder to hide this year.  Look at those Roman candles!  

I wasn't too worried until we pulled out our last box.  The kids and I went up to the roof to watch the city fireworks and our last hurrah all at once.  

As soon as the first flaming ball left the box I was worried.  These were big fireworks!  They weren't launching quite high enough for me to feel comfortable having them so close to our neighbors.  Surely we were going to be arrested at any moment.  There were 16 balls in the box and I was counting down every one.  We are going to get in so much trouble!  As soon as the last one launched Jeremy picked up the box, doused it, and threw it in the trash can as fast as he could.  He hid all the evidence, shuttered the doors, and we hid, sure a cop was going to come knocking.  He never did but it sure was a rush.  

Happy Fourth! (Yes, this is one of the fireworks we lit on our street.  We shouldn't do that again...)

La Sal Cabin

It's been a few years since we've been able to go down to Jeremy's grandparents' cabin in La Sal.  It's always nice to have an excuse to get away and disconnect from the world.  And if it wasn't for the mosquitos (which were beyond anything any of us has experienced before) it would have been a great little escape.

We took some back roads to get to the cabin and it was a great adventure.  We saw deer, cows, a bear, and even had to change a flat tire.  It's a good thing we had everything we needed!

Paintballing (the masks and layers of clothes protected us from the mosquitos as much as from the paintballs)

Finding rocks, painting rocks, hiding rocks

Games

Indoor shenangians while hiding from the mosquitos

So many dogs!  We had four canines with us who all wanted all the love.  

Follies in the woods building a fort, hiding by smoking fires, and outrunning the bugs with the four wheelers

Trying to pour out the lake water from their boots.

Jeremy now wants a toy like this.

Cambrie and I found a hidden clearing where she was able to sketch and paint to her heart's content.

Hikes up tempting, towering mountains (still not high enough to escape the mosquitos)

And cold water plunges in the evenings.