The 5th and 6th of July

We kind of missed out on all the traditional celebrations for the 4th this year so we had to make up for it on Monday and Tuesday.  The kids were bummed that we didn't go see fireworks after the campout, but sparklers made up for it times ten!

We got started and I was ready to go with my camera, and only a few shots into it I realized that if I left the shutter open a little longer it would capture the sparklers in a really fun way. 

Is that not the coolest!!!  I seriously could not get enough of it!!  Everyone enjoyed dancing around for me and then running over to the camera to see what I got :)  It was a total blast.

These ones on the first night were different because you can see the kids better.  I think I like that better because I do like to capture the looks on their faces. 

This was Noah's first time using sparklers!!  He was nervous, but brave nonetheless.

That's Nate's "N" :)

So when we finished, I couldn't resist calling my brother and his wife (the photographers) and bragging about my cool new way to take pictures of sparklers (I call it new, but I'm sure it's not the first time it's been done.... just new for me :) and my new camera :))  We hadn't had time to do our other fireworks so I invited them over to do the same thing again the following night. 

And they of course couldn't resist......

So Tuesday night, we took our watermelon and popcorn outside to the park strip and celebrated some more with Brent, Sarah and Charlie.  The kids ooohed and ahhed over the snakes (those were my favorite when I was little because I remember my dad would let me light those myself).  Then the boys broke out the pop-its!  That was a total blast.  It was fun to watch Noah doing those.  He is getting so grown up!  Brad and Luke found new ways to posp them.  They would just dump the bag out and they would all pop a whole bunch at once.  Then Luke learned how to jump on them!  That was really fun.

Erika LOVES being outside.  She just sat there and enjoyed it all.  It's amazing the different type of little girl she is when she is outside.  She really does love it.

action-photo of Luke jumping on his pop-its

I love his fingers :)

Ruffles came over and Tom also for some chit-chat before Brent and Sarah got there.

Noah does this all the time, it's so adorable.

Kelly LOVED the fireworks.  She really got into the strobe light ones.... she was just out of control happy with it all!

It sure was fun having the Hatches there with us.  Brent is the master when it comes to lighting with photography.  He's been teaching me..... someday I will be able to put as much effort into it all as he does.... he's really good!!

After the fireworks we did the rest of the sparklers.  So fun!!  I had a good time entertaining myself :)  I will have to get some of our word ones from Brent and Sarah, that was just too cool!

On the second night we were able to convince Lukey that he wanted to do it.  He did a few and actually seemed like he was enjoying himself!  It was nice that he had a day to decide he wanted to :)