Fourth of July 2011

The Fourth of July this year started out with a few parades. Anisten's dance studio was in the West Point parade and she loved the idea of being IN a parade so we made sure she got some candy to throw and got her to the float (just in the nick of time by the way).

Rob said that as soon as she got on the float she started throwing candy...even when there weren't people to catch it. :) We told her to save some for when she got to us, but that obviously didn't happen. She LOVED being on the float though and it was so so cute to see her.

There she is on the float. She actually switched sides on us so we had to run around to the other side of the float right after it passed us so we could see her. Silly girl

Throwing that candy...she means business
She loved it
Another reason I was willing to let Ani be in this parade was because Lexi was in it too and I thought it would be fun to see them both. Lexi made SBO for West Point Jr High so she was in the parade with the Officers. She's squirting us with water

Aivree was so funny at the parades. Once she got a piece of candy she was content to just sit and eat it. She didn't care that people were throwing more handfuls of candy to her (which they all did) as long as she had one in her mouth. She liked watching me scramble for the candy :)

After the West Point parade Rob headed to the golf course and we headed to the Layton parade. That one was probably the least fun just because they didn't throw hardly any candy and at the others we got a ton of candy. It was still fun though. We then went to eat lunch at Rumbis (yum) and then to my parents house to get ready for the BBQ later on. I put Aivree down for a nap and we were gonna get the little swimming pool out but it was kind of a rainy cloudy day so that didn't sound so fun at the time. It did clear up later on though.

July 4th is my mom's birthday so we made sure to celebrate that with her. My very talented cousin Shari made some of her famous filled cupcakes and we put together some candles for her to blow out. My dad's birthday is on the 6th so we usually end up celebrating their birthday's together. This year we (the kids) gave them the gift of "time." It was a gift card to the Little America hotel and PF Changs in Salt Lake. My parents struggle to find time for each other lately since my dad is so super busy so we gave them something they'd have to make time for.

We didn't have a 5 so we had to do 2+3 4, meaning 54. I know, I should've thought about that, but hey, it worked. Make a wish! We had fun hanging out, playing volleyball, eating and playing Just Dance on the Wii. We did have a little scare for a minute when Anisten choked on a carrot. Luckily my brother Brandon was right next to me to help her get it out because I pretty much panicked. I was so relieved when she started screaming because I knew she could breath. I hate things like that...so scary.

Anisten, Lexi and Sara playing Just Dance. It was a hit!

I tried really hard to get a good picture of some of the cousins. It didn't really work. Still cute though.
Oh how my girls love their cousins
After all the fun and games we decided to head home instead of going to the fireworks. We aren't huge on fireworks anyway and we didn't want to have to fight the traffic so we headed home. They passed a new law in Utah this year allowing aerial fireworks so we didn't even have to worry about not going to any city's fireworks show because they were going off EVERYWHERE. While driving home the girls got to watch them from their windows and when we got home we just stood in our driveway and got a 360 view of them. Anisten loved it, but the loudness scared Aivree a little. She really doesn't like loud noises (which is strange because she's such a loud girl herself).
I love Anisten's face in this one
There's one!
Overall we had a blast..love those fun filled summer days