4th of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Ours was a little low-key, with a few minor "challenges," but we had a fun day. Julie, John & 3 of their boys are still here visiting. We had a big breakfast and decided to go see a movie. We discovered the day before that the mall here has a $1.50 movie theater. They had "Nim's Island" playing, so we took everyone to see that. McKay was a little unsure about going (he gets scared easily in movies) and I wasn't sure how Hayley would do, but we enjoyed it. Hannah sat next to me and peppered me with questions through the whole movie ("Why is she doing that?" "What's going to happen?" etc.) I was glad no one was sitting near us or they probably would have been pretty annoyed. She also got scared during all the storm scenes. Hayley sat on my lap most of the time and did pretty good.

After the movie, Brian went with Julie & John and the boys to run a couple of errands and I came home with the girls to get the food started. When we walked in, we discovered that we had been invaded by those darn winged ants while we were gone. They've been swarming out on our patio every few days (we think they are carpenter ants and have wings because it is their mating season). We've had some get in the house, but not like this.

The best part, I suppose, is that most of them were already dead. I think I would have really stressed out if they were all crawling around alive. They were all over the tile that surrounds our family room and in the breakfast area of our kitchen. We had to vacuum them up. YUCK! We've got to figure out how to keep them from getting in the house (and I hope they aren't already IN the house to begin with!).

Julie & John had bought some nice steaks so Brian decided (a little impulse shopping here) to buy a grill.

Actually, we have talked about getting a grill for quite a while since we've never had one. It's just usually not like Brian to buy a bigger item like this without doing a bunch of research and comparison shopping, etc. But it seems to work just fine. We got the grill home and discovered the fittings didn't work with the older propanes tank that was here at the house. So they had to go back to the store and get a new propane tank. That meant that the rest of the food was done before the steaks even got started, but we were able to keep it warm okay -- and it all turned out yummy!

I tried a slightly different variation of the "flag cake" dessert this year. This is our flag cookie:

It is a sugar cookie crust with a cream cheese frosting and fruit. Of course, Hannah complained that she doesn't like cream cheese frosting -- there's always somebody who isn't happy.

My other challenge of the day was my little Courtney, who is still really struggling with potty issues (and she will be starting Kindergarten soon!). She goes through several pairs of pants every day and it has been very frustrating to say the least. Yesterday when the movie was over, she had wet pants and we ended up not going right home (we drove down into the Canyon area to look at some lots Julie & John are considering). During that drive she informed me that her car seat was wet -- soaked was more like it. I don't know how she's going to manage with full-day Kindergarten -- I can hope that the peer pressure will be enough to finally do the trick for her.

That evening (the girls were in bed), we sat out on our side patio and watched fireworks off in the distance. We weren't sure if we would be able to see any, but we ended up having a decent view of several different "shows" throughout the city. There was a big show that the city sponsors that we could see and several smaller fireworks here and there. It was pretty neat to just scan the horizon and see fireworks. Plus, there was a nice cool breeze (we love that it actually cools down at night here!) and it was just really enjoyable to sit outside for a little bit.