A Crazy Fourth

On the 4th of July, we went to the parade, the farmers market, then home to rest for a while until we went to a BBQ at a friends house. We had a lot of fun and good food! We always enjoy getting together with our friends, and there is enough children there that all have something to keep them occupied. We were quite outnumbered; 12 kids to 6 adults!

All the kids had fun playing outside, and when the weather turned bad, watching movies.

The adults did what we do best; talking up a storm. Literally; while we talked we watched an awesome storm brewing. We took pictures and discussed what those unusual cloud formations could mean; we soon found out.

We stood under these for a while, talking about how odd it was that it was so calm; no wind whatsoever.

Then the clouds started to swirl in circles, there was more lightening and thunder, the wind picked up and we went inside just in time.



The rain came first, coming down in torrents. The kids watched the lightening from the window.

Then the rain turned to hail, in large amounts. I was concerned about our car; but it didn't get damaged. Our friends, the Harkers, had a beautiful garden. Sadly, it was ruined by the hail.

Only minutes before, we were enjoying ourselves here!

A handful of hail. It was ice hard, and pretty big.

Look at all that hail!

The men shoveled, swept, and anything else they could to keep the water away from the house; it was quickly forming rivers and lakes.

We got about an inch and a half in under an hour. We were graced with a wonderful double rainbow afterwards.

After our fun at the Harkers, (and we did have fun; lots of it! Even with the storm!) we came home to do our own fireworks. Here are the kiddos with sparklers.



Ava had a hard time with these last year; burnt her fingers in a couple of places. We thought she would never touch one again, but she didn't even remember!

Jason and I took turns setting off the fireworks.

We never get very big ones, and we try to stay away from the really noisy ones. We just love doing this as a family!

We had a very good fourth of July. I was so excited to come home and see that my tomato plants were ok! My lettuce was ruined, but I think that will grow back. We were SO GLAD we weren't in a tent somewhere, as had been the plan! I was also very touched by the speech during the fireworks(the one on the radio that plays music to accompany the fireworks). I hope I am not the only one who heard that! Let me know if you did, what you thought of it. A great fourth!