The 4th Part 3: A fantastic Fourth!

BBQ with dear family friends!

My old friend Mary invited our family and her family to her new house for mid-day Fourth of July BB-Q including including great food, bounce house, bubbles, slip-n-slide, good friends, family and 4 desserts! Here are two patriotic dessert displays. The mini pavlovas are to die for. I got the recipe from Jules a few years ago, made them for a baby shower and haven't made them again! Not smart. Soo so so so good!

*** just reread this...and it's not clear...JULES made both awesome desserts! I just took pictures to show our fun yummos!

Old friends Julie, Carrie and Mary.

Mini Patriotic Lemon Tarts:

Julie goes all out for get togethers ~ she's all gourmet and it's yummo!

Bounce house! Kyle was a bit timid at first, but once he gave it a chance, he had a blast!

Scott filling up water balloons.

The line of kids taking away his filled balloons kept him from filling up his bucket. When Julie came around the corner with her bucket filled he had to cut it off. The two filled buckets were of course gone within a few minutes when the kids were unleashed!

Slip~N~Slide! After another dad chucked their kid down the mat, Scott and Sean gave it a go and it was hilarious! Much fast than a regular run on the slide. We did this with Kyle too, maybe one of the funnier things I've ever seen - especially with his swim diaper chubbiness. If he hadn't slid into the grass at the end, he probably would have loved it. So fun to see all the dad's organizing and fascilitating the slip~n~slide together. The kids were hilarious. There were some die hard sliders. Kyle made it so long without a nap and was at the point of whiny roaming around. So Aunt Sydney decided to try to put him down for a nap...which worked! We didn't bring a pack-n-play, would have been smart. oops. But he was so tired, she got him to fall asleep on a guest bed upstairs! I was shocked! Unfortunately just minutes after he fell asleep, we decided we needed to take off so he was woken after only 10 or so minutes of a nap! Surprisingly he made it the rest of the day without any other nap and was totally fine! Late at night after the fireworks driving home he didn't even fall asleep! (Mostly because he was still on California time - but doing so with only 10 minutes of a nap - usually has one or two naps of at least an hour or more!)

What a great morning. Some people are like family, even if not through blood.
Then we headed to Washington D.C. for a dinner picnic and fireworks! The weather was awesome, not even hot. There were lots of people, but open enough to find a great open spot for my boys to dance and play.

Right when we were setting up our spot the Orchestra began playing "God Bless America" and everyone stood up to sing. We were so thrilled to join along we got a little carried away...realizing after I took the picture that we weren't saying the Pledge of Allegiance or singing the Star Spangled Banner...we were just feeling really patriotic!

Kyle playing with Aunt Sydney. She is so fun to have around!

We took a walk around and played some games...

I just love the Fourth of July! I love thinking about our nation's history. Remembering our founding fathers and their hopes and dreams for this nation is inspiring. Being in Washington D.C. makes me real happy especially on this day!

So glad to be in our Nation's Capital! What a place. Just love it! All in red, white and blue, with a bit of camo added in.

I've wanted to go to the Fourth of July in Washington D.C. with my family for a long time and it finally worked out this year that Scott could come for a long weekend during the summer! It was just the best day!

Serious Awesomeness.

Left: Pre-firework glow necklace dancing.
Right: Sean with awesome red, white and blue firework!

Other Holiday weekend activities with Scott around...

Washington D.C. Temple with sister, parents and husband! Not a great picture, but it was a special day in the Temple.

catching Fireflies!

Fireworks on a ladder.

Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam memorial