The Sights and Sounds of Summer

We've had a busy two weeks of July so far! We had a great time celebrating the 4th with our little family and friends. We went to West Des Moines' parade on the 3rd. The kids enjoyed gathering tons of candy. Drew & Lauren had quite a few meltdowns everytime the firetrucks went by with their sirens blaring, but once those passed the parade was a hit with them. Drew even figured out how to run out and grab some candy for himself.:) On the 4th we had friends over. It ended up being rainy, so the evening was spent indoors, but it was a fun time. Our holiday weekend stretched into Monday when we went to Urbandale's fireworks display. This past weekend we went camping with the DeKoning side of the family. The kids had a great time, but they were tiiiiiired by the time we got home on Sunday. Ryan ended up taking Drew & Lauren home to sleep on Saturday night because Drew woke us all up on Friday around 4:00 when he fell out of bed and we were all pretty much up the rest of the morning. Luke, Reagan, and I slept much better on Saturday night, even though I thought the camper might blow over in the wind! Tomorrow we're leaving to go to Orange City and up to Ryan's parents cabin in Minnesota. It looks like the weather will be beautiful, so we're looking forward to lots of water time!

Watching the parade

Reagan's trying to flag down some candy while Drew & Lauren hang on to me for dear life.:)

Waiting patiently for the parade to start.

Drew & Lauren showing off the firework display.

We did sparklers when it wasn't really dark out, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

This is pretty much what happens everytime I try to take a picture of Drew or Lauren.

The kids had fun playing at the park when we were camping.

Reagan and Bethany

Erica and Drew playing in the rocks.

We played some Minute to Win it games. The kids had some fun games of their own. Even Drew got in on the action (Lauren was fast asleep) and did quite well!

Luke trying to roll marbles and get them to stick onto the tape.

Ryan did awesome at shooting the rubberbands to knock down the pop cans. He had the fastest time by far!

I think I was the only one on my team that wanted to look like a dork. I was supposed to catch ping pong balls in the cup after bouncing them off a table. I did not succeed.:( My team did end up winning the overall competition though!

The kids taking their turn at bean bag toss.

Becky brought a fun bracelet craft for the kids to make.