I heart my neighbors

10 reasons our neighborhood 4th of July party rules

1. Homerun derby


2. Obstacle course


3. Sweet fireworks


4. Great friends


5. Insane dutch oven cherry chocolate cobbler


6. The running man


7. Yummy food


8. Lots of laughter


9. Doug's head getting cinged by handheld fireworks


10. Talking and talking and talking
11. Flipper run

The big winners

Scooter cones

4th of July

We had a fun filled Independence Day. We started the day off with our traditional pancakes, bacon and eggs breakfast at Nana's. We enjoyed pure maple syrup from Canada and homemade raspberry jam. Yummo! The real fun began at 6 pm. I am of course referring to our neighborhood 4th of July party. We barbequed, ran an obstacle course, had a homerun derby, ate popsicles and cobbler, and topped it off with a sweet fireworks show. Needless to say, the kids went to bed without any problems.

Bear Lake

We spent the weekend in Bear Lake with my mom. The moment we arrived we headed down to the beach. The boys built sandcastles and Lucy ate sand. On Sunday, we went to the bird refuge in Paris, Idaho that is. We saw sandhill crane, geese, ducks, egrets, great blue herons, ibis and a first for us, baby coot. (We're birders, alright!) Monday brought a 7 mile bike ride. Charlie completed the entire trip himself. However, he did cry for the last 1/2 mile. At the halfway point we stopped to refuel with some treats in Garden City. After the bike tour we went swimming to cool down. Then the boys went golfing with Nana and Justin. Elliot said that Nana's ball was like a magnet for the sand. (That can't be good)

The highlight of the trip was seeing 3 great horned owls, including an owlet wolfing down a duckling. The lowlight . . . Elliot found the arcade. The lowerlight . . . the arcade has a hunting game with a hillbilly accent. Good thing the Lyon parentals own a laundromat! We'll be needing lots of quarters for our next trip to Ideal Beach.

Summertime

Is there anything better than a warm summer evening, the beach and a swing?

Birthdays and Fun in the Sun

Happy birthday Grandma! We went to lunch with Patrick and Virginia for her birthday today. Afterwards, we decided to beat the heat by playing in the fountains at The Gateway. The boys had a blast! Charlie, of course, followed Elliot everywhere he went. They especially enjoyed being blasted in the bum. Go figure.

First tooth

Lucy cut her first tooth. We're not sure how long it's been there since it's all the way through. But hey, she's the third child. We're just glad we noticed it.

Chubby Thighs

Last night I woke up to Lucy screaming around 1 am. I went in to find one of her chubby thighs was stuck in the slats of the crib. I tried in the dark to softly pull it out. But had no luck. Justin tried as well, but she was seriously stuck. We finally got her leg out by greasing it up with good ol' Target butter. It worked like a charm. This afternoon as I was trying to take a picture of her chubby legs for the blog she decided to pull herself up to her knees in the crib. She also started mini army woman crawling this week. She's growing up so fast!