4th of July

 The 4th of July fell on a Sunday this year, which means that we celebrated on Saturday AND Sunday AND Monday (the official work holiday). It made it so fun! We got to spread the celebrating out over several days and do all the stuff and see fireworks three separate times!

On  we did a big swim party at my parents house with the whole Newbold family- these pictures of Lila and Rosie are so cute! 

The theme for dinner was "Men who grill" and Will, Ben and my dad all brought their grills (we had all three going) and grilled different specialties for dinner. Ben got really creative and made two different types of sliders. Everything was super delicious and the company was lovely. Then everyone left but me and the boys (Ben took Lila home to bed) and we watched fireworks from my parents balcony- which is my favorite thing ever.

Layton City had their celebrations on Monday, so we ventured over to the Layton parade and crashed Hickman's party there. Let me tell you- it was HOT. So hot. The kids got tons of candy and loved it, but man it was HOT. Afterwards I drove the boys straight to my parents house so they could take a quick dip in the pool because everyone was so hot and sweaty.

On the 5th we did our traditional red, white and blue breakfast. Ben made biscuits topped with berries and cream and it was delicious!

This was on the 4th, which was Sunday. Ben and our 14 year old neighbor George matched at church! They both humored me with a picture on the walk home.

Lila had so many cute, festive dress up options! I kept passing that section in Target and thinking about buying her a special 4th of July outfit, but I'm glad I didn't. Turns out her wardrobe at home was perfect already. So we started on July 1st and she got to wear them all before the 5th was over! 

Before church on the 4th of July. I maybe could have found some red ties for the big kids to wear, but they didn't care. They went with Ben to set up chairs at church, so I snapped some pictures of my two tinies and while they didn't exactly cooperate, I love their candid shots!

We are so thankful to have my parents beautiful pool which makes life a party! These kids are all fearless in the water and we love watching them have so much fun!

This little outfit was a gift last year- it was size 6-9 month which she could have feasibly fit into last 4th if she wasn't such a tiny, slow growing baby! But it actually still fit this year and was just perfect!

We watched fireworks three nights in a row! On the 3rd we watched from my parents balcony, which is our favorite spot. Right after I put the boys to bed on the 4th a lot of people in our neighborhood were setting them off, so I grabbed the boys out of bed and we all went out and watched. Davis LOVES fireworks and was a wild little man running up and down the sidewalk and pointing out every one of them! On the 5th we did the same thing, we could see the Layton City fireworks from our next door neighbors driveway, so we set up chairs and enjoyed the show from there! In all of these firework shows, Hudson lasted for maybe 10 minutes and then we sent him to bed to the relief of everyone, including him. Lila slept through all of them without a peep (thankfully!) and Chase and Davis were excited to the very end! 

The Rest of June

We spent so much of June playing outside. Davis and Lila love playing in the front yard, a lot of times with a gaggle of other little kids. I am thankful every single day for our beautiful neighbors!

Hudson, being the sweetest brother ever, practicing the piano with Lila on his lap. He has done this before and I always think it's darling, even though it isn't the best way to practice.

Davis is officially "deep end certified" (a term Hudson coined years ago). He can jump off the board and swim to the side. He's been amazing! He doesn't panic at all- so he'll be swimming across the pool, lift his head up to get a breath and sweetly declare "Almost there!" and then put his head in again to swim! We are so proud of him!

Sweet cousins, enjoying swim night! 

Chase and I started running together last spring. We just go once a week (my knees can't handle more than that). He's done amazing! We are up to 2.2 miles, no stopping, and even though it feels super hard to him, he keeps going! He told me the cool down is his favorite part because he feels so accomplished. I love this time with this cool kid.

I turned 33! It was during one of the weeks I taught swim lessons. I had Anna and Nora in classes that week, so Kate came early and they decorated the yard for me! It was a fun surprise! Ben and I went out to dinner and did a little shopping that night, which was also wonderful.

I was super excited to be done teaching swim lessons! The two weeks went really well, but it was so nice to have it behind me. I put all my boys in classes the first session and I loved having them, they all enjoyed it too.

Classic Huds

I think this was the last time we went to a park- this is like the first week of June. It got HOT so early this year, it's too hot for parks! It's been high 90s or 100s every day for weeks and we are all getting a little tired of it!