4th of July

The 4th of July, every year is super entertaining for us. It is a busy weekend around here. This year it was just a bit more chaotic. On the first of July the city sewer backed up on our road/block and ended up shooting poop water up through our basement toilet and therefore "flooding" our fully finished basement with sewage. Ick! That is a whole other story that may never be told again. I get a headache just reliving moments of that morning and the days to follow.

We did the best we could with the clean up and the organizing for our 7th Annual Olson Family 4th of July BBQ. Everybody was super understanding about the state of our house (nobody really cares, but I do), all brought food over to celebrate and the pool of water that had accumulated in our neighbors yard proved to be a 2+hour hit with the kids! Bear assured us it was simply "rain water".

The kids spent hours literally picking worms out of the grass. We all just stood there and watched them. First with anticipation of actually touching the worm to putting it in the buckets. Parker, I don't think, never touched a worm with his bare hands. He had a stick the whole time.

The Karsnia's came for a visit and brought a long new baby Easton. I got asked no more than 10 times that day if we were going to have another one. I held him each chance I got. Then when Bear took him from me, I changed my mind briefly to wanting...just one more. Then Jessalynn disappeared with a glass of water to nurse for over an hour and I remembered how isolating it can be. So I drank my sangria and told my uterus to shut up.

The Pavlecks came this year too. Elise napped on Molly in the shade...more babies.

My baby. Emmitt wiped out and I tossed my camera at JP to hold on to and what do ya know? He turned it on and took a picture just so you all would know that I attended my own party.Davina. AKA My "hot 30 year old friend" via my 17 year old nephew. She still 29 bud! And happily married, but I thought it was funny that that is how he referred to her. I passed Easton to Davina and actually got JP to hold him too. They'll be next. Garret. What a cutie. The kids were all dressed in some form of Red, White and Blue.Emmitt is in mid-form to shove more popcorn in Gracie's mouth. She just sat in her stroller and took it from him. She is literally surrounded by boys.Grandma and Emma hanging out on the deck. She's 14 and never too old to sit on Grandma's lap.
It helped that the 5K was the day before the 4th. It was a little less rushed. It also helped that I ventured downtown with just Parker. No stroller. No napping toddler. Just us. We got free cotton candy for everybody because Bear had donated his electrical skills and fixed the machine. Shared a corn dog and just as the parade was finishing up the clouds let loose and the rain came down, we left. We made it back to our house just as our guests were arriving and had a great time!