The 4th of July

Our 4th was a whirlwind of parties and fun! When we finally got home at 10:45 and got the kids to bed we sat down and realized we'd been going nonstop since 6:30 that morning- but it was a super fun day!

We started off our morning with our ward breakfast- the Young Women were in charge of decorating so I had to be there early and the Elders Quorum was in charge of food, so Chris had to be there early too...and it was already starting at 7:30- poor Abby was so tired but it was worth it when the kids got to each the chocolate muffins!

We quickly left the breakfast to head to the Bellaire Parade.  Nathan and Abby absolutely loved it! I've never seen a kid wave so long as Abby did...she would literally wave at the different people for about 3 minutes straight, pause, then start right on waving again.  Nathan was fascinated with everything, and loved getting candy!

We had a great time with friends even though I thought I would die of heat stroke...I just can't take the heat and humidity! But the kids seemed to do just fine and still managed to be so stinkin cute!

Right after leaving the parade we walked around the carnival for a bit then headed to the store and picked up our new Grill!!!! We (Chris) are so excited.  We've been wanting one for a while and with hurricane season here we knew we needed some way to cook food if we lose power (Hurricane Ike knocked out power to our area for almost 2 weeks...so I'm nervous!).  Chris quickly put together the grill (as quickly as a grill can be put together- so many pieces!) just in time for some friends to come over for our first BBQ!

There were so many boys- 11 kids, 9 of them boys! Nathan was in heaven :) And Chris loved cooking on the new grill.

After dinner we headed out to Hermann Park to watch the fireworks.  The kids loved riding the train up to the park.  We met up with the mounted police officers, threw rocks in the water, and chased this poor duck around.

We got a spot to watch the fireworks, listened to the Houston Symphony, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more.  By 10:00 there was still no sign of the fireworks starting and our kids were getting tired (and so was I!). Chris had to be at work super early the next day so we decided it was best to just head out.  So we still didn't get home till 10:45 and we didn't get to see any fireworks...lame.  If I had known that they didn't start their fireworks show till so late we would have gone somewhere else...oh well, know we know.

We had a great 4th of July- hope you all did too!