4th of July Weekend

For 4th of July weekend we were lucky enough to have my sister Brittany, her husband Leon and their cute little girl Ellie come down from Arizona and stay with us.  It was so nice to get to spend some time with them all especially since in mid August they'll be moving across the country to Boston so Leon can become a Harvard Man.

Ellie in her big girl seat

Carder and Miss Ellie at Steak & Shake

Carder and Ellie wrestling in what they like to call their uniforms (naked on top diaper on the bottom)

Ellie was so funny about Brenn she just had to get her anytime she saw her.  She also would refer to her as "Dog Dog."  Ellie loves dogs so I took the overextension as a sweet way of her letting us know she loved baby B too.

The girls...Ellie is a little bit pale but Brenn made her look super albino.  I guess Jake's greek heritage came out in her.

Ellie had so many kisses for B

Brittany & Ellie

Jake with the girls

Ellie in her cute 4th of July outfit

The Johnson's had to leave in the afternoon on the 4th so they could get home in time to enjoy some fireworks and since Brit had school and Leon had work the next day...I attempted to get a cousins pic while they were all dressed in their 4th of July get ups but wasn't too successful...

Ellie thinking about getting Brenn

Carder getting Ellie

Carder doing his ridiculous faces

 

At this point I gave up...

That night we drove up above the valley to watch all the fireworks shows.  There is an empty field right in front of the fire station by our house so Carder and Jake went to go walk by the big fire trucks while we waited for the fireworks to start. Carder totally scored because I guess that when they walked by the fireman invited them in and Carder came away with a medal as well as a homemade car which he was so proud of.  They invited him back for a full tour of the station if he'd come back on a weekend so now he talks about his buddy Captain Nate all the time as well as fire station number 47 which he calls his fire station. 

Jake with Brenn...of course when I took the picture it captured zero fireworks.  But there really were several displays going on at this time.

Me with the kiddos watching the fireworks

After we watched the big fireworks show we went over to my Aunt Kimi's house where my cousin Brandon put on a show of his own in the driveway.  Carder was hilarious, he hated the little fireworks especially the noisy ones.  He kept covering his ears and then ended up running inside their house.

Carder reacting to the noisy fireworks

Brenn had no issues with the little fireworks, she was just happy to be snuggling her Daddy

Then the sparklers came out and Carder thought that they were the coolest thing ever...he called them "the stick you write fire in the air with"

All in all it was a great weekend and a great 4th of July!