4th of July

Oh my goodness...where do I start? First of all, I have so many pictures I want to share it's absolutely ridiculous...and yet I think I just might post every single one of them! Don't know if they're all going to fit on one page...but I'm gonna give it a whirl. =)

My oldest brother Dale is here from New Jersey with his wife Jenny, daughter Olivia and son Jacob...just in time for the 4th of July...and Lord-willing for the birth of Paisley. (Crossing my fingers and praying that baby girl comes out soon...and I can hear Ann saying, "Amen!")

On the 4th we had dinner at my parents house with Dale and his fam, my parents, and my Grandma Young...

followed by hanging out in the backyard with the kids...

and then we walked to West Ellensburg Park for the fireworks...my mom and Jenny had brought glow sticks for the kids to play with and they had a blast making necklaces, anklets and bracelets...and eventually combing all of the glow sticks to make one giant "necklace".

It was so much fun watching the kids during the fireworks. First of all, they were much quieter than past years (thanks to the economy and cheap fireworks) and Remi absolutely loved them...at times pointing in the sky and yelling out various sounds.

The kids grew sillier and sillier throughout the show and near the end were yelling things like "that one looks like Jacob!" or "that one looks like Grandma!" It was pretty cute. I loved watching Raife have fun with his cousins. Although they'd never met each other before Saturday, they all instantly became friends and had quite a time together.

On Sunday afternoon we had a BBQ at our house with Matt's parents, my parents, Grandma Young, Dale and Jenny and kids, and Lance and Cooper. Again, the kids had lots of fun playing together in the backyard while the adults visited. It was fun to watch Cooper get thrown in the mix as well. Although he's the youngest (excluding Remi), he's starting to be more social and play with Raife and I love watching them interact.

Olivia is great with Raife and Remi...I think maybe she needs so more younger brothers and sisters cuz she's so good with little ones...wink, wink to Dale and Jenny...

Jacob and Raife are just plain old silly together. They're both boys though...boys at the age where they love to be silly.

We took a few pics of the 5 cousins together and I was cracking up when I looked at them afterwards. Olivia, Cooper and Remi were troopers...cheerful, smiling, looking at the camera or adults the whole time...Raife and Jacob on the other hand...well they just couldn't seem to both smile nicely at the same time. In one picture Raife is smiling and Jacob is goofing off...then in the next Jacob is smiling nicely and Raife is goofing off...they literally alternated the whole time and we didn't get a single picture where all 5 kids are smiling towards the general direction of the camera. Ah well...that's what happens when you try to get pictures of 5 kids all at once. Check em out...