the fourth and stuff

DeAnna, Brad, and I took our boys (plus our nephew Mason) to the white trash bouncy house place in Springville last Thursday. The little boys had a great time. Brad probably did too. He certainly played hard. I had a hard time just following Colin around to take pictures. Curse this enormous pregnant belly of mine!

Colin liked to give the princess a hug. He said she was Belle.

Mason gave the dragon a hug. I think he was just trying to climb on.

Donovan and Brad taking a ride on the dragon.

Brad ninja-kicking the knight's head. And this was in the area for children 5 and under. Oops.

Riding on the awesome carousel. DeAnna even had 1 quarter so it actually moved for a minute or so.

Playing in the yard later that day. Kate was happy to have a bucket. She can even say "bucket."

She was also strangely attached to this shovel that day.

And Colin decided to mow, naturally. I even put the bubbles in so it could be a true bubble mower.

This weekend was packed full with family time. My niece Kaylee was baptized on Saturday, and her one-week-old baby sister Brooklyn was blessed on Sunday. We also took Silvey family pictures Saturday evening. The weekend was kind of chaotic, but there were relatively few tears and tantrums, so I call that a win. I don't have any pictures from any of those events, yet. I'll try to steal some from my in-laws later.

Here's the fourth of July stuff. I took the kids to the parade, leaving Nate at home to do some work. (And really, he did work. The kind of work that his company pays him for.) Nate's not a parade person. Granny and Papa were kind enough to get up early and save seats for everyone. All I had to do was show up with my cute kids and a camera (and park 4.5 blocks away).

Mmmm, doughnuts. (I really wanted one too. Stupid diabetes.)

Kate liked the cow. "MOOOOOO!" she said.

I liked the roller derby team. Their name is Rollier Than Thou. Awesome.

Colin loves to see the fire trucks, but the noise is a little too much for him.

The Little Mermaid float! Colin was very excited for this one.

Neat story—one of the military veterans who followed this sign was a guy named Fred Mason. When I worked as a transcriptionist for a BYU professor back in the day (like almost 7 years ago), I went with the professor to interview this guy. I got to type up the transcription and edit it into a newspaper story that ran in the Orem Geneva Times. The whole project was also put in BYU's Special Collections and sent to the Library of Congress. Fred Mason was a Marine in the Pacific during WWII and he experienced some crazy stuff. He was also one of the nicest men I have ever met. I was so caught up in seeing him in the parade that I neglected to take a picture. Shoot.

Yay! I don't know what she was clapping for. Probably something to do with the parade.

Some of the kids got to touch Scooby Doo's foot. Neat.

I don't remember what these people were doing, but they were all dressed as Star Wars characters. Awesome.

Kate after she peed through her diaper and capris. Good thing I brought a festive red diaper for her to wear so she still looked cute.

Colin loves tractors.

And princesses! They had Tiana, Tinker Bell, Belle, Rapunzel, Aurora and more. Even Harry Potter and some other characters. I only took 1 picture and then some video. Sorry.

Missionaries! Kate loved waving and waving and waving back at the missionaries.

And just before my camera died I got a shot of my kids sitting with Bradley. I was surprised that Kate chose to go up there all on her own. She spent the rest of the parade with me. (She's still not much of a people person.)

Nate and I are going to the Real Salt Lake game tonight, so there will be more pictures to come. I just had to clear off my camera before our next big adventure!