Independence Day in Washington!!!

We spent the Fourth of July this year in Washington like we've done in years past. It was a beautiful day and the boys were sooooo excited to celebrate their Independence!Ry RyAustyWe started off the day participating in the annual Lake Tapps Fourth of July Parade! The boys got some patriotic tattoos......and Harrison got them these balloon swords! So sweet of him!Ryan, or maybe Daddy, loved checking out this old military vehicle!Austin jumped in too, but wasn't quite as intrigued!Ready to roll in the parade!Grandpa Ben cruisin' the parade route!After the parade, we enjoyed a BBQ by the lake......then the boys had some fun at the park!Silly boys!!!We then spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying this beautiful place!Ryan and Justin out on the wave runner!Austin and Piper having some fun!Ryan and Harrison riding in the kayak!Ryan and Adam going for a ride in the tube!

These little ones were just the three musketeers!

Ellen, Austin and Piper!Austin and Piper giving loves!Later in the day all of the guys headed off and bought the entertainment for the evening!Pyros in training!First round of sparklers for the evening!Later that night...Roman Candles!!

And sparklers again!

We had a really fun Fourth of July celebrating with all of our family in Washington! We love you all and miss you already! We are so grateful for our freedoms and such a beautiful land to live in!

Fair Week!

The last week in June was fair time in Placer County! That means a lot of fun in the barns for these little stinkers!
Ryan
Austin
Tyler
This year Aubrey's pig got sick, so she couldn't show it at the fair. Luckily, our cousin Andrew was showing pigs for the first time, so we got to go watch him! It was fun, and that meant more cousins to play with!
Nathan, Ryan and Austin played non stop on the caboose...
...and rode the train around the fair grounds a ton too!
As we wandered around the fair, we found all sorts of fun things! Austin with Captain Jack Sparrow......and wearing an adorable little hat he found! Would make a beautiful little girl with those baby blues!Ryan and Mary found the coloring table......so all the kids joined in and scored these very fashionable sunglasses for their efforts!What would the fair be without the rides?!Ryan found the balloon lady and got this awesome alien holding a bazooka! He loved that thing and was quite upset when it popped!
The boys got to walk the pig, which was one of the highlights of their whole time at the fair. We were cracking up, because some really air headed teenage girls walked up and asked my dad if it costs money to walk the pigs. He could've started up his own little business right then and there.
After spending some time at the fair, we took the boys to a water park. They had a blast!This park had a crazy spinning chair! I've never seen anything like it before! It would get momentum and start spinning and you couldn't stop it! The boys, and myself, got so dizzy you couldn't see or walk straight for a good minute of more!Another fair week treat was some homemade deliciousness at Nana and Papa's house! Homemade Ice Cream is a Schmidt Family treat that we love!!! The boys enjoyed helping Papa mix it all up!Just a cute picture of the boys sportin' Auntie Natalie and Auntie Aubrey's "I'm Another Friend of Mike Doyle" t-shirts! Loomis classics!