It's Independence Day.

Let Freedom Riiiiiing! Serious, does anyone celebrate the 4th of July without listening to Martina McBride's song? I don't even like country all that much anymore, but I love that song! Randy was joking to me that it's impossible to celebrate Independence Day without country songs as the ones that "bring it home", much to his disappointment. Another random side note, we were at Logan's Freedom Fire and were watching the fireworks and listening to the music they had choreographed with it, a Celine Deon song came on and it looked like it might be the finale. I was all, oh no you din't! You are NOT going to go out on a Celine Deon song!! Luckily, they didn't. (Sorry Celine lovers, I know there are plenty but I am not one of them.) I think the finale song was country. :)

Anyways... 4th of July. Some find it odd that we invite our English friends over to celebrate our Independence Day.... from them. I think it's awesome. This year Randy and Ben really outdid themselves. This year Utah made the aerial fireworks legal, so they both have been on the hunt. Randy even went and donated blood just so he could get some sweet firework coupons! Oh, and helping people out, you know. He's all about that. I asked him if it was worth it when he came home and thought he was going to pass out and laid in bed for like 2 hours. ;) When it was all said and done, our firework show went on for over an hour! It was craziness. Most of them were the little guys, but we had probably 10 big aerial ones. Our neighborhood was all ablaze, too. It was so fun watching everybody's "show".

This year Macey was really looking forward to the 4th of July so I thought I'd make it really fun for her, and the rest of us. Has anyone else noticed that cute (not corny) 4th of July decorations are hard to find?! We had fun with the "decoraysh" and had lots of fun making patriotic food! I made the wreath with yarn. Haha. I actually really liked how it turned out! The pictures were taken on a really overcast day, so they are really dark. But the decorations were really cheerful and fun!

Randy grilled burgers (aaaamazing, his secret sauce is worcestershire and it is the best!), I made a flag sheet cake (found from Pioneer Woman, I love her recipes) that was sooo good, s'mores with a popsicle stick inserted, then frozen, then dipped in almond bark and sprinkles. I found that idea from a blog, too. They were a hit and so fun to make! And then I topped off the patriotism with red and blue striped jello with whipped cream on top. Mmmm. We stuffed our faces all. night. long.

Ben hates creamy stuff, so that's why one jello is without the goodness.

All in all, a fabulous 4th of July. I *loved* being at home with my family and having a relaxing day. I'm proud to be an American and am so grateful for the people that put their lives on the line to ensure our freedoms!

Collin's first reaction to the fireworks. Sheer amazement.

 Beebee Abby. Could she BE any cuter?

 I asked Randy to go put some shoes on Collin. Behold.

 Classic!

 Boys being boys. It was pretty funny, they had it all planned out.

 I can't wait to send this picture to Sara and Ben's parents in England. :)

 She was talking to the fireworks, it was too cute! She loved them!

 Collin found a great spot to watch.

 Oh Ben.

 Our lamp by the street totally ruined this picture, but you can kind of see the lights. The horizon was totally lit up with aerial fireworks. It was SO COOL!

Memorial Day Weekend.

We went to Idaho Falls for Memorial Day this year. Of course, the weather was crappy, so what we could do was limited. We made the most of it, though. On Saturday afternoon nine (9!!!) of us piled into Dad's truck to go up to the cemetery to place our flowers and to wash the headstones, only to find out once we got there that nobody had brought any cleaning stuff! HAHA.

Sunday we had a family dinner and then a surprise party for my niece Kayla who was going to have a spinal fusion the next week to correct her scoliosis. All the older girls stayed the night at my Dad's. All of us staying there got zero sleep.... oh wait, except for my Dad to escaped to his TRAILER! Genius! It was hilarious to listen to the girls laugh their heads off and at one point, even sing the national anthem at the top of their lungs. Well, ok. Maybe not hilarious until the next day. ;) Everyone gave Kayla presents to help her with recovery and I made the decorations. It was a fun way to show Kayla we love her and support her! It was also Joel's birthday that day and I attempted to make him a surprise birthday cake until Randy TOTALLY blew the surprise. He felt so stupid. It was hilarious and oh so awkward.

Monday we all went to the cemetery for their ceremony at 10 AM. Can I just say that I think it is awesome that my whole family goes to the cemetery on Memorial Day? We were the biggest group there. My Mom made it important to us to go visit my sister's and grandpa's grave growing up, so now it is important to us to visit her and my other grandparents who have now passed.

After the cemetery we all went and got lunch and brought it to my brother's office and ate, then played nerf guns! It was awesome!! Something not many people know is 9 hours later... when we got home and I was unpacking at our house, I bent over to pick something up and heard a "OH...MY...GOSH" from Randy. I freaked out thinking I had a spider on me or something and then he told me to look in my boobs. HAHA. Can you believe that a dart from the nerf war made it undetected all the way back to Utah lodged in my cleavage. I was pretty embarrassed, but that didn't last long. It was too dang funny to be embarrassed over.

Here are the pics! (Not of my bosoms, perv... but of the weekend.)

Coelton goes on his mission.

We're going to back track for a bit. There are a couple of things that I didn't post but want to!

In the beginning of May, my oldest nephew Coelton (whom I am only 7.5 years older than) left for his mission. Since his family was driving to take him to the MTC I offered up my house for them to stay, that way I could say my goodbye to him. I don't know if that was a good idea or not. I don't know why, but I get SO emotional about stuff like that. When my older brother Justin left on his mission I cried for days it seemed like. In a way I kind of wish I would have gone to his farewell a few weeks earlier in Boise and just said "see ya later" there. But when they stayed over, they were literally dropping him off that day, and it just broke my heart. My sister Natalie was having a hard time with saying goodbye to her oldest for 2 years, and I felt like I needed to be there to comfort her.... but honestly, I am the WORST person to comfort. I cry right along with you and feel your pain. I realized Nat was probably missing my mom so much because she was the only other person in our family to have sent a missionary off, and in a way felt like I needed to fill that void. Welp... I'm sure I fell way short, but can't say I didn't try!

They stayed over Tuesday night and we watched The Voice and The Biggest Loser and per Coelton's request... some Sports Center. : ) The next morning I got up and was so excited to try out my new parfait glasses I had scored at a thrift store earlier in the week, I made yogurt parfaits with homemade granola for breakfast. It was pretty yummy, Macey still asks for parfaits in the cool glasses. Natalie and Joel took Coelton to the temple early that morning and I tried to entertain the other kids with whatever I could to take their mind off of what was coming.

When it was time to say goodbye and walk them out, I was already tearing up but was trying hard to stay strong for Natalie. It didn't work. I hugged Coelton and told him I was so proud of him, and cracked some dumb joke/quote from Nacho Libre or something to stop me from crying but that didn't work either. Then it was time to hug Natalie, and I totally broke down. I failed as a comforter. She was strong and didn't cry, though. Just the big bawl baby aunt did.

As I watched them pull out of my driveway, I had a nice long cry thinking about how hard these next couple of days were going to be for both of them. I kept looking at the clock and at noon when it was his "time"for drop off, I said a prayer and cried. Haha. Later, I called Natalie and we both cried while she told me how it was to drop him off at the MTC. The next day I sent Coelton a letter with a dozen Krispie Kreme donuts to help him feel better. What's funny is he was totally fine and was probably like, wow, my aunt is being really weird. : ) I have a hard time with things like that, ok?!

Anyway, here are some pictures...

The crew watching tv

 That's all he was allowed to take!

 Joel teasing Collin, of course.

 Loading up.

 Cute family pic!

 Joel teasing Collin again.

 Yeah, putting him on top of the car didn't go over so well with Collin.

 Using Collin as a distraction so I wouldn't cry!

It's funny now that I look back at it, but man, was I emotional! Coelton is the oldest grandchild and I realized that our family isn't going to be the same. I have another nephew that graduated last month (and totally bawled when I saw pictures on Facebook of it) and will be going on a mission next year. Crazy! Coelton is doing great, almost out of the MTC and itching to get out into the mission field! He is an amazing missionary!