A Very Busy 4th of July Weekend!

Actually, the whole week beforehand was busy too! And unfortunately, not full of great sleep. We had tons of fun regardless seeing tons of family and friends.

It started out with a visit from my parents. Just one night, but lots of fun and laughter!

Sam, Seth



Papa and Sam

 Then we were off to Ben's parents to watch his brother Levi play all-stars:

Ben, Jeff, Nathan, and Caleb (note the similar posture and leg up)

Levi batting

Levi pitching

 Seth and Sam stayed plenty busy playing in the rock and dirt! They were looking quite cool in their hats and shades.

 And, of course, there were grandparents to hold and entertain!

The whole fam

After watching Levi play both Sunday and Monday mornings, we drove to the site of Nathan and Holly's new house (Ben's brother and wife). They are having an Adair home built in Maupin, and we were just bursting to see it! It's was really fun to imagine what it's going to be like when it's all done. Seth and Sam thought that the gravel pit in front of their house was fabulous and loved running in the just dry-walled house because of the loud noise it made.

From there, we drove two hours to Camas, WA to have a 4th of July celebration with good friends Mike and Rachael Gowen, at Mike's parents. Yes, we did a ton of driving this weekend!

Mike, Annalise, Seth, Ben, and Sam

I LOVED Seth in this night's helmet...so funny!

Sweet Sam boy

Seth throwing pop-its

Sammy, too

Mike teaching Logan sparklers (we weren't that daring with our boys)

All the boys watching their first firework

This is where the pictures end. Unfortunately, that's because the next firework scared the daylights out of Seth and Sam. It was innocent enough: a small little car, little sparks flying...until the LOUD and STARTLING high pitch scream. Poor boys! They both screamed and burst into tears. Seth recovered shortly after; but not Sam. He clung to us like his life depended on it. In hindsight, doing big and loud fireworks with 2 year old boys probably wasn't the best decision, but in our defense the boys really haven't been afraid of anything yet. So, I went inside with Sammy, and we watched from the window for a bit. I would periodically ask him, "Do you want to go outside?" "No, inside." About 10 minutes later Ben came inside with Seth and said was just too much for him too, so let's just go home. It was a wonderful drive, because we got to watch all of the cities' shows from the car! Sam kept saying, "Fireworks, loud. Sam crying. Go inside. Play cars." Well, there's always next year!