The Fourth of July

Ah, the 4th.

I love Summer holidays.

Heck, who am I kidding?  I love Summer!!  

One of my favorite things about the 4th this year is that we had absolutely nothing planned.  

Perfection.

Aaron headed out early to sneak in a run. <---Did you read that?  Hello!!  

Since he went out first and I knew he wouldn't be gone too long, I woke up to this little bit of happy

and we snuggled in bed waiting for him to get back.  

There was a little hiccup in the morning when after an hour and a half he still wasn't back, and I knew he'd only headed out for a couple of miles...  I went to go find him hoping he hadn't passed out somewhere along the way (sorry babe, I was worried).  Turns out he was down the street just a bit talking to a friend we hadn't seen in a while.  I joined in the conversation, and an hour later realized that it was WAY too hot to go run at that point.  Oh well, we had a great chat!  

As she and I were talking, Aaron went home to start breakfast, and tore me away from the conversation a few minutes later because food was home waiting.  

Red, White and Blueberry waffles.  

Awesome husband.  

The kids wanted to play in the water with dad, so they played king of the pool for a bit.

Dad always wins that game.  

There was a nice big water fight as well, which I avoided by working on my tan next to the baby.

Awww, look!  The perfect color scheme for the day.

Don't worry, baby was in the shade, thoroughly enjoying her nap.

Charlotte alternated between playing with the big kids, laying with me, trying on Alaina's sunglasses

and begging me for yellow nail polish.

It took a little while, but she broke me when we were grocery shopping a few days later.  

What can I say?  We didn't have yellow.

The rest of the day was very cliche', the family bbq and just hanging out enjoying the beautiful day.

There was an amazing finale to our night though.  We don't go anywhere for a firework show-keeping track of nine kids is tricky enough, doing it in the dark with thousands of other people and at bedtime just doesn't hold the least bit of appeal.   But it works out ok.  We are surrounded by a bunch of pyros, which works out pretty well in the fireworks department.   Our backyard gives us the perfect view of what happens out here, this year in three different spots; on directly behind us, one to the left and one to the right.  It was completely amazing!  

 Watching that while laying on a blanket in my backyard with my baby sleeping on my chest, my kids completely contained, and ice cream sandwiches all around on a warm summer night?

Perfection.