4th of July

Erika, Daymia, Sierra and I spent a Sunday afternoon getting our nails all decked out for the upcoming 4th.

The boys sat on the couches with their electronics watching our party and though it looked like they were feeling a little left out, they refused to let us paint their nails..  The longer we had the polish out, the sillier we got.  Next time we might need to open a few windows.


We began our holiday celebration with good food and great friends.  Both were plentiful throughout the entire day.

Our party included: Bret & Erika and Bret's brother Aaron; Levi & Daymia and Daymia's brother Shane and sister Jordan; Derek & Sierra and Sierra's two little brothers Danon and Colter; Spencer & Jenell Mangelson; Kate & Mike with Korben, Logan and Brooklyn; and my brother Jared.  And, let's not forget that crazy Edwards family!

LeRoy was all set with fireworks, mushy watermelons, fire crackers, dynamite, and a whole pile of junk to blow into the air.

The kids were so excited when we pulled out the watermelons.  They remembered the fruit flying all over the place last year and were hoping to get hit by it this year.

For the first watermelon they all sat "far enough away".  Not so!  They were covered in mush and so happy about it.  Mike started to take cover after that but Hyrum stood in batter stance ready to swing at whatever came his way.

How many people does it take to set off dynamite?


Things progressed to shooting tennis balls, golf balls and empty spray paint cans from a pipe.  The videos do not do justice to the height they were getting.  We did clock the air time of some of the objects and 14 seconds was the longest.  Jared and Justin tried to use physics to determine how high that meant it went but the excitement of the next explosion distracted them.  After that, they didn't care how high it went they just wanted to watch the videos until the next shot was ready.

Night time brought the less dangerous, less messy, prettier fireworks.

While the older kids played with sparks the younger kids played with glow sticks.

From the swings and chairs, the roof, the top of the car, the yard and the windows, we had a great view of our 4th of July.