Fourth of July Week

Joe's brother, Terry and his family came to visit July 1st-3rd. We had lots of fun with cousins. Their oldest boy is ten and he was a great help in playing and entertaining Ashton and Tanner. They loved playing with him and kept him busy. We went to the beach together one day and then headed to Brazos Bend State Park the other day. At the park, there are probably hundreds of crocodiles. So we got to see a bunch in the water. If you go during cooler months, they often are laying near the paths in the grass. It was a hot day to hike around the park but the kids had a blast. I liked it more than the zoo as it is always fun to see animals in the wild. We saw lots of birds, a few turtles, and a deer as well (and thankfully no snakes!). I'm bummed we waited this long to go visit the park. It's about 45 minutes away and will be about the same drive from our new house so we'll be going back soon.

They entertained River by feeding her dog food treats.

Went out for ice cream since the ice cream truck didn't come the beach this year.

 

On the Fourth of July, we went to our church's annual pancake breakfast. It was fun to go to our last ward event down in Lake Jackson. After that, we headed to a friend's home to swim and have lunch. It was raining off and on but that didn't stop the kids from having a blast in the pool. I made a yummy flag-like cake.

It was made to look like a flag on the inside as well. The red was more pinky but that's alright.

We rushed home for naps and then headed out again to another friend's home for dinner and swimming. Tanner made the day very memorable by attempting to swim and failing at it. We had finished swimming and were eating dinner outside by the pool. Tanner was playing near the pool with a water gun toy. An older kid borrowed it from him but Tanner was adamant that he have it. As the kid swam away from the side of the pool, Tanner decided to get in the water. Thankfully, I was outside and on the other side of the pool. I kept yelling at him trying to scare him to stay out but he went right in with no fear. A few seconds after he went under the water I was able to get to him and get him out. He didn't seem too scared of the water but was crying because he wanted the toy. I still have that image of him being underwater and helpless. Definitely one of the scarier moments of parenting. Aside from that incident, the evening was fun and a wonderful night to spend with friends who we are going to miss.

After that party, we headed home to get Tanner to bed. Ashton, Gemma, and I went to fireworks. This was Ashton's first time with fireworks. We met up with some friends and she had a great time watching them. The deal was that if she wanted to see fireworks, she had to take a nap on the 4th and again on the 5th to catch up on sleep. It worked wonderfully well and I got two days of all three kids napping at the same time.

Ashton and her friend being silly before fireworks.