What a 4th of JUUUULY!

Life happens and sometimes you can't control it. You just have to go with the flow. And so it was that this 4th of July weekend found me with 4 days off work and 2 weekend days sandwiched in between them.

Thursday we went to the zoo. I like the zoo. It's fun to see the animals and the twins are old enough to get out of the stroller more and they thought that was great. Of course their favorite thing was the snake slide in the kids playground. Michelle wanted to get there early and we did, arriving around 10am. We were done and had lunch and were out of there close to 1pm. Well what's across the street? "This is the Place" State Park. So we went over there and got to look at some of the old buildings and learn about pioneer days and gave my kids some appreciation for how much house we actually have. Michelle loved it because they have spinning and weaving there. I'm fascinated by the architecture of the old buildings. We went into the ZCMI store just as the storm blew in. So we got to sit and watch it dump rain and when it let up a little we darted across the street to the Huntsman Hotel and got ice cream. At this point I was tired and the twins were driving us crazy so we hopped the train to the entrance and came home.

Friday I don't remember much of what we did during the day...quite possible lazed around. That night we had the Round-about of Fire in our neighborhood. Only one announcement was made in Priesthood meeting and a flier was distributed 2 hours before it started and we still got 145 people there. Better attended than some of our more organized ward functions! We had some hot dogs and chips and desserts and watched a great fireworks show considering when the whole thing started we had 5 fireworks. Big thanks and shout out to the Hardy's for donating their stash and to the Wards for sharing the awesome finale.

Saturday we went to Michelle's brother's house for yet another 4th of July celebration. I was surprised at how many people were there...a lot more than last year. It was fun. Rob and Heather did a great job. I was disappointed by how many of those people left before we did fireworks but we still had a great show without them. :) The only thing I wish we had done was bring bug spray.

Sunday we had nothing planned...thank goodness because....

Monday we packed our minivan to capacity and went camping with Michelle's siblings and their families. It was fun despite the chaos of 3 families with 5 or more kids and trying to keep the twins from killing themselves. However, the grand tally of casualties was high in the bug bite department. Ethan and Adeena got eaten alive on their faces. While the rest of them were staying until Wed, we had to get back on Tuesday so I could go to work. Totally worth it. We got to stay the whole day and hang out but still slept in a real bed that night.

While we were there I had a couple of growing experiences as a parent. I tend to be over-protective as a parent knowing what kind of child I was. But Michelle's bro-in-law had brought a big ax and BB guns. So of course they pulled out the big ax to chop wood. Ethan asked and I said NOOOO. But as I watched and knew that this bro-in-law was supervising really well and had taught his kids the correct way to do it, I felt more comfortable. Not enough to let Ethan use the big ax but when another bro-in-law brought out his hatchet for the younger kids, I let Ethan have a whack at it...literally. I also relented and let him shoot a BB gun, much to his surprise. These are good life skills you may never know when you need them. And this bro-in-law, while kinda crazy sometimes is quite safety conscious and has been in scouts for a long time. I think that trip did me some good and helped me to see that my kids aren't going to be 4 or 5 forever. I have some very capable older children and I need to let them grow up like my parents let me. Only I'll do better when it comes time for them to leave home and I'll accept that they may not come back.