Since Aaron and I were feeling much better after our illness over the weekend, on the 4th of July we decided to go to the lake. Rick & Michelle came with us, but they were not feeling well, so their participation was minimal.
Rylie hadn’t been to the lake since August last year when she was 8 months old, so it was a lot of fun to watch her enjoy the lake even more!
Emmaline even got to enjoy the water up to her waist. She was indifferent – not smiling but not crying either, so that’s good haha.
Eventually, Rick & Michelle were overtaken by their body and were unable to participate in the rest of our 4th plans. So on Friday (7.6.18) when Rick said he got some fireworks on clearance and offered that we could come over Saturday (7.7.18) evening for dinner + fireworks, we were quick to accept.
Rick grilled some freshly butchered pork chops while Michelle and I made the sides (salad, veggies, rolls, etc.). It was a delicious meal!
After dinner, we headed outside to start playing with the fireworks. Amberlyn showed Rylie how to use Pop-Its, and Rylie loved throwing them.
We headed down the driveway (away from trees 😛 ) and the men started lighting various firework goodies. Even the dogs were interested in the festivities!
Rylie was glued to what was going on. Occasionally the boys would set off a firework that was loud, but they were really good about warning us so we could cover Rylie and Emmaline’s ears. Despite our attempts to help with the noise, Rylie was still extremely aware and refused to take her eyes off what was going on. So when I tried to get a photo of her outfit, because I thought it was the cutest thing, she refused to leave my side – so we ended up taking some photos together. Since I don’t get a ton of photos with my girls, it was 100% fine with me! 😉
Kylo was quick to jump into a picture with this girls too.
>>side note:: Rylie has been saying “Allessss” (Alex) for months, so we’ve been trying to get her to say “Kylo,” but it always comes out “Allessss.” But she started saying “Iiiiooo” so we’re making progress 😛 <<
After our quick break for the sake of our photos, the guys started lighting fuses.
As Rick and Aaron started getting to the end of their stash, I broke a couple glow-sticks I had purchased for Rylie, which she LOVED!
The night ended with us lighting some sparklers. Aaron lit one and handed it to Rylie, who absolutely loved it (and might I add she did a great job handling it) 😀
>> can I just say this is probably one of my favorite photos of her so far 😛 <<
Since it was Emmaline’s 1st 4th of July and I think the last time we got a family photo was a couple months ago, I wanted to make sure we got one with our sparklers. It took 2 tries before we got all 3 sparklers lit AND Rylie standing with us, but we got it 😀
We waited a couple days so we could get those fireworks on sale 💥
Since we all had an early morning for church the next day, we cleaned up, loaded the girls and headed out. Rick and Michelle thanked us for letting them redeem the 4th of July, and we said it was a lot of fun and we were glad we could make it work.
We hope you guys had an amazing 4th of July and were able to do something fun to celebrate!
Until next year.