The 4th of July!

One of my dad's favorite holidays is the 4th of July. So I grew up with the 4th of July being a major holiday that included lots of fireworks and a big BBQ. In Utah, however, very few fireworks are legal. So, this year I thought it was time for my kids to celebrate the 4th of July Grandpa-style!
Grandpa started them slow. He let Cole help him check out the some of the launchers and make sure they were ready to go.
Then, he took them to a fireworks tent and let them pick out some stuff that they thought looked like fun.
"Let's see here, should we get tanks, race cars, or boats. Ok, how about all of them!"
Cole and Emily hit the jackpot and they didn't even know it. While all of the fireworks that they got here would be a full 4th of July for most people, this was just the beginning for Grandpa.
Once they got home, Grandpa started them off with smoke bombs and parachutes. No kid can resist those, right?
Emily jumped right in without a problem!
She even wanted to throw her own smoke bombs.And hold her own smoke canister.
Cole, on the other hand, was still a little apprehensive!
(Does his smile look a little forced here?)He did decide chasing parachutes was actually fun.

And he loved to have tank wars.
After all of that work, Grandpa finally won Cole over.
He was ready for the big show! (These are the 16,000 or so firecrackers that they light at the beginning of the show.)
They tried to build a tower to hang all of the firecrackers on so they didn't set the grass on fire. However, that became a little more difficult then expected! How many intelligent, successful men does it take to construct a fireworks tower?
More than you think!
I'm not sure how I missed a picture of Addy in her 4th of July outfit, but Em looked pretty cute.
The fireworks that night were beautiful and fun. Grandpa did a great job as always orchestrating a wonderful show!
I think in the end, the 4th of July in KC was a success. The kids ended up being ok with the fireworks, even the louder ones. Hopefully these types of pictures are a thing of the past!
I guess we'll see next year!

Here Come the Cousins!

Like I said in my last post, after a few days at Grandma's house, lots of my cousins started showing up. There got to be so many kids there I didn't know what to do! There was always someone to play with and admire me. (Especially my cousin Weston. He's a little obsessed with me. As you'll see though, I managed to work that to my advantage!)
Here is a picture of dinner one night (just the kids' tables mind you), just to show you the kind of chaos I had to put up with. I don't know how they got all of these kids fed, much less themselves!
I kind of liked it though because there was always somewhere to snatch a bite of big kid food. Whether it be begging from an aunt, uncle, grandma, or grandpa, from someone's plate, or in this case, being in the right place at the right time. (They wouldn't let me have any of the droppings though, something about strawberries being off limits. Rude!)
I also managed to coax a few (ok alot!) of bites of ribs from my cousin Weston because he thinks I'm so cute!
However, he was way too slow!
So, when someone distracted him, I grabbed the whole thing from his hand and hurried and shoved it into my mouth. (He was tough, he didn't even cry. He just want and talked Grandpa into giving us more! I don't think Grandpa understood what the story was, so he just gave him more rib to make him happy!)
There wasn't just lots of good food at Grandma and Grandpa's. There was also lots of stuff to do and people to play with.
We got to swim. (Tabitha looked so cute in her swim gear! I was a little bit jealous.)
The big kids played sports.
(Or something. I'm not sure what Uncle Damon is doing with that big white pole!)
Cole thought he was cool because he got to play lots of Wii with our Uncles and big cousins.
I also found these pictures that Mom took. I think I must have been napping when this happened since I am not in the pictures. (I don't know how, I tried really hard to not nap while we were there. I didn't want to miss anything!) But, I did hear them say something about a magician. Really, a magician at the house? Who does that? Grandpa was responsible I'm sure!! From the looks of the pictures, Cole and Ally thought it was amazing!
The most fun part of all was spending time with family. It is so nice that every once in a while, we can go see most of our cousins, aunts and uncles, and great grandparents.
For once, I wasn't even the smallest one. (Ok, I might still have been the smallest, but at least I wasn't the youngest!)
And thankfully, Emily could hold my cousin, instead of trying to hold me!
We even got to see Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Watt. If I thought it was crazy, I can't imagine what they thought about all of us! (It's a good thing we are all cute to make up for the chaos!)
We are so blessed to have such a great family! Hopefully we will get to see all of them again soon!

A Visit to Grandma's, Addy-style

My Mom is tired and worn out from all of our vacations, and being the good kid that I am, I thought I would help her out. However, she doesn't seem to like it when I help her with the laundry by pulling all of the clothes out of the basket. She also doesn't seem to like it when I pull dishes out of the dishwasher in an attempt to help her. So, I will try my hand at updating the blog for her.
A few weeks ago, we went on an airplane to visit my Grandma and Grandpa. I wasn't too fond of the airplane ride because I couldn't roam. I had to spend the whole time sitting on my Mom's lap. I guess it was worth it though to get to spend time in KC.
We went a few days earlier than every one else so we could have some Grandma and Grandpa time all by ourselves. We got lots of it!
While we were there, we got to play with all of their toys and games. I don't think my Mom got a picture of it, but Grandma has old puzzles that my Mom used to do when she was a kid. I bet she had like 50 puzzles and I think Emily did every single one of them more than once. It was a little ridiculous!
This is me, playing a game with Grandpa. (The game was mostly I do something cute and then wait for Grandpa to admire me!)
Emily got to help Grandma in the garden. (I'm still trying to figure out how come my Mom's garden doesn't look like this! Hers is mostly just dirt.)
Cole got to chase the rabbit that eats Grandma's garden.
He also got to catch these things called fireflys. I never did figure out what he was talking about, something about glowing tails on a fly. (I have yet to figure out his obsession with bugs and critters. He's always trying to catch something.)
Cole and Emily climbed trees. (They actually had me climb the tree too, but the picture wasn't my best, so I chose this one instead!)
We went to play at a park. My Mom said she didn't know they put merry-go-rounds and teeter totters at parks anymore, but this park had them.
They even let me ride on some of the toys, although Emily always thinks she needs to show me how! I never get to do it by myself!
Grandpa and I mostly just watched all the fun though. Have I mentioned how much I really like my Grandpas?
One day, we even went to hang out at Aunt Shari's house. ( I have to keep in good graces with her. She buys me lots of cute clothes!)
We also had to go visit them because cousin Ally is like Emily's hero. She always puts makeup on and dresses Emily up. Emily thinks she is sooooooooooo cool.
After a few days by ourselves, the rest of the crew started showing up. And, oh my, what a crew it was!

Addy's Game

One day I set Addy on the couch and she decided she did not want to be there. So, it turned into a little game for her to see how fast she could dive off the couch after I set her down. Here is a video of her. (Side Note: Cole was my videographer, so the videos are cut a little short at the end. She would spend several minutes laughing after she was in my arms and then try to climb back up for more!)
WARNING: This is done by an expert. Please do not try this at home!

Here is another attempt, where her dive got thwarted, so she just went for the roll dismount instead!

Swim Lessons

Since Cole and Emily love to play in the water, we once again decided to sign them up for swim lessons at the local pool. Cole really seemed to enjoy the lessons and learned a lot. Emily didn't really learn much, but she had fun with me in her Mom & Me class!
Here are a few pictures of them in action.
This is Cole, waiting by his number, 12, for his class to begin.Cole learned how to float in a life jacket and then how to float without the jacket on. He went from floating for 5 seconds at the beginning of the week to being able to float for 35 seconds by the end. Not bad progress for a week!
He learned to put his head in the water and swim.
And of course, his favorite part was the last day when he got to go on the slide and diving board.
In Emily's class, they teach them beginning swimming skills using songs.
(Thankfully, one day Chad came to take her to swim lessons so I could take pictures!)
They use Wheels on the Bus to get in the pool.
They also did skills to "Do As I'm Doing", "The Hokie Pokie", and several other songs.
She enjoyed the slide way too much (I think we probably went down over 20 times one day)! And she was also mad that they wouldn't let her jump off the diving board!
The most useful song they do is "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to teach them to "crawl" along the side wall of the pool. Emily loves to do this now! Here it is. (Especially for you Weston!)

Emily wants to be a mermaid when she grows up and she is well on her way!