Our 4th, 2011

I LOVE the 4th of July holiday. In fact, I love all the summer patriotic holidays (Memorial Day, 4th, and Labor Day). They are days to celebrate our country, our freedoms, and those who have sacrificed and are still sacrificing their lives for our sakes. The OTHER reason I love those holidays is because it is my family's tradition to go to the park, play over-the-line softball, and have a swim/bbq/ping-pong extravaganza at our house and on the 4th it is followed by fireworks. But since I have lived so far away, I have missed way too many of these traditions with my family. But this year, we finally decided that just because we lived so far away, we didn't have to miss out on these traditions. Instead, we brought them to the good ol' IL.

My fabulous husband made my day by arranging a OTL softball game with some of our ward member's. We had a GREAT turnout!

The fielders....

Levi, batting it up

Part of my team...

The Dellster...

Maddie was an awesome Rubysitter...

And Ruby was a tired girl... and it was HOT!

We had SO much fun playing OTL and I think everyone had a pretty good time. It's good to find a sport that families (men, women, and children) can all be involved in. Maybe it can be a new tradition for the good old Elgin 1st ward.

After softball, we went home to make a cake and then headed over to one of our favorite family's house, the Willerth's, for a swim/BBQ!

Lyla getting ready to get her swim on...

Della and Ruby...

Diana and Lyla...

Oddly enough, Della and I have the same swimsuit. I like to think it means that I am fashionable :)

Cute Emma and Pete joined the party too...

Trying to get Nate to pose like we're going to prom...

Dean and Diane making fun of how I wanted to take the picture...

Rub loved the water and was chillin' like a villan...

I love my two girls!!

Lyla was NOT very comfortable in the water at fist. But after a few hours into the day she definitely warmed up playing Motor Boat with her dad.

Such a happy girl...

Lyla was helping to throw sticks into the fire with her Grandma Willerth.

Diana and her friend Wojtek...

Drake and his girlfriend Carrie...

Del and Lyla...

Diane and Diana with Diane's new BEAUTIFUL spice rack!! Can you believe that thing!?! A definite improvement from a lazy susan cabinet.

Later we headed to the Curtis/McQuay home to watch the Sleepy Hollow fireworks...

Ly loved watching fireworks with Diane and playing with the sparklers...

Love these girls!

Seriously, this was one of the best 4th of July's I have had in a long time. From OTL softball to spending time with a family we consider ourselves to be a part of (whether they like it or not :) ), I would not have spent it any other way. We love these guys and our ward and we will miss every single bit of it.

Hope your 4th was happy :)

BIG Minneapolis Post

Two weekends ago Nate and I decided to get in a visit with Nate's brother, Joe, his wife Naomi, and their kids Layton and Izzy. They only live about 6 hours away and compared to the rest of our family, that is CLOSE! They had a full agenda for us when we got there so we got to play hard the entire time.

Our first night there we went to an awesome park nearby while Nate and Joe played tennis. Wish I got some pics of that. Then Naomi, the master chef, made a delicious dinner which I am salivating just thinking about it.

The next morning Joe took us out on his boat. We ate a delicious lunch and then got our wake boarding/tubing on! Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Nate but he did AWESOME for how long it had been. Then we wanted to try and get the kids on the tube and get comfortable in the water.

Naomi sitting with Lyla getting their feet wet...

But when they got on the tube, my extremely cautious Lyla was anything but comfortable.

Then I hopped on the tube to try and make her feel more comfortable and when Joe started pulling us (SLOWLY), she was still PANICKED! So her tube ride lasted all of 30 seconds. One day she'll learn to be a little more adventurous... hopefully.

Who is that?

Oh right, it's me! After Lyla got off the tube, I went out with Layton and he LOVED it! He is a total fish. After that, Joe pushed me back out so he could thrash me around a little bit. Lyla was on the back of the boat watching and was in complete hysterics watching me out there. But, it was a lot of fun and I almost fell off multiple times. But I was determined not to let go so Lyla wouldn't think for a moment that I had died. Because that's kind of how she was acting. As Naomi put it "It was like watching her parents get eaten by dinosaurs."

Ly acted the same way when Nate was wake boarding and she kept spitting out lines like "All done!" "Get back in the boat!" and "No, DON'T get back in the water!". It was all a little sad that she was so traumatized by it but also really cute that she was so protective of her parents. Love you Ly!

Naomi and Iz snuggling after her nap.

After I tubed, Nate got back on the boat with Layton. Look at how cute they are together! These two had a great ride.

The next day we were able to see a tiny part of the Great Mall of America. It definitely lived up to its name... that place is HUGE and actually has a theme park right in the middle of it! We started off at LegoLand.

Lyla LOVES Woody from Toy Story.

Joe and Izzy. Isn't she adorable?

They had such awesome Lego structures!

For some unknown reason, Lyla LOVES those big stuffed mascots that walk around and you can take pictures with them. She thinks they are the best thing ever.

Of course, we HAD to ride the escalator for about 30 minutes before we had lunch...

And can you believe it, Rainforest Cafe had their frog mascot walking around the restaurant. This just totally made Lyla's day! She was so excited that she even grabbed his hands and started to dance with him (which consists of jumping up and down really fast). I got some on video but the quality is horrible since it was so dark. Oh well.

After lunch we decided to go to the theme park. Naomi and Iz were great sports waiting around while we went on a few rides.

We chose to go on the log ride since it was the only one Lyla and Layton could go on. Joe and Layton had a log to themselves and decided to sit in the front and they got DRENCHED! It was so funny, despite the fact that Layton was not very happy about it. Poor kid. And as you can see from the picture below, Lyla wasn't a huge fan either.

And then they had even MORE characters running around. Here is Lyla with Dora and I don't know the other guys name. She actually doesn't even watch Dora but she was still thrilled.

The Backyardigans?

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, especially Layton...

Ruby LOVED Cache, their dog. He kept licking her face over and over again and she just LOVED it!

And Ly loved Cache as well. He's such a good dog!

Ly LOVED her uncle Joe. Every time he was gone she kept asking Naomi, "Where's Joe?" And she would just look at him with adoring eyes and she loved watching movies on his iPad. It was really cute!

She also loved her Aunt Na. They are total buds!

We seriously had such a fun time with Joe's family and we wish we could have snuck in a few more trips before we move. Thanks guys for being awesome hosts! Miss you guys already!!