4th of July

Every year we usually spend the 4th of July up at my parents' house. We went up on Sunday afternoon. Josh and my Dad went to the Patriotic Program Sunday night. They do that every year. We slept over and the festivities started on Monday.


THE RACE

My little brother, Matthew, asked Chloee if she wanted to run the "Main Street Mile" with him. Obviously, really he meant that he'd run it with her. My Dad is in charge of it every year, I guess that comes with being the cross country coach. The race is right before the parade starts, so they run the mile down main street. I was so proud of her, I was crying. I know, I know. Matt said that when he'd tell her it was okay to walk, then she'd speed up some more. I can't believe my 4 year old, not just 4, BARELY 4, by 1 month, ran this.

She was so excited to get a baby water at the end.

My Dad was at the end cheering all the kids in and timing them. My Dad said that Chloee did it in 11 minutes and 40 seconds. She did awesome, especially for being probably the youngest one doing it.

Some little girl crossed the finish line in these. My Dad said to her, "Anyone who can run a race in snow boots deserves a medal."

My Dad, Matt & Chloee.

Matt, thanks so much for asking Chloee to do this and for taking her and being her little "personal coach". She loved every minute of it.


THE PARADE

Ok, so I took no pictures whatsoever of the parade. Here is a family picture though. I don't think I have any of the 4 of us together.

Could my shirt be any cooler? Rosie the Riveter, it doesn't get much cooler than that!

I made Josh show off his shirt too. Susan gave it to him for Father's Day. I just love that pose he's doing.

Yeah, I don't really know what was going on in this picture or what they were saying, but it's cute!

Every year we watch the parade on my grandma's front yard. It comes right by her house. This was probably our last year doing that. She passed away last November and they are selling the house. We got a picture of all the siblings in front of the house, minus Leslie, who lives in Nevada.


FUN AT THE HOUSE

Yeah, I don't really know what Josh is doing in this picture and I'm sure that I'll pay dearly for putting it on here but it was just too good.

Yep, got one of Jordan too!

We played Croquet. This is an all time new favorite at the Williams household. There's a lot of cheating going on while playing that game. Anything less would be boring.

Yep, she's got BIG, curious eyes!

Who doesn't love a Sissy ride. Ok, so just Halle rides and Chloee pushes but that sounds about right with Halle's demanding personality.

This girl LOVES to stuff her face (if it's her idea).

Us being weird. What else is new?

Hey, you know it wasn't enough for Josh to have his appendix out this year.... why not throw is back out? His idea, NOT mine. I'm a total Heifer.


THE FIREWORKS

We always go up to my Aunt Sharon's house and watch them on her front lawn. She lives right next to where they set them off. Great view.

I need to play around with this setting a little bit more. I'll get better by the time the 24th rolls around. We had so much fun. It was a great Independence Day!

More Daddy Daughter Ball Pictures

I got a couple more of the Daddy Daughter Ball pictures. These are the ones we paid for. She's with Cinderella and Jasmine. She told me that that night was the bestest night and that she loves Daddy.

Mountain Dew Cake

Our friend, Todd, had a birthday at the end of June. He LOVES Mountain Dew. My mom gave me a cake decorating kit for my birthday so we had a go. It was Josh's idea. We decided to do it like a 12 pack box with a cut out of one coming out. We also went with the old logo. It was interesting. In the cake batter, we replaced the water with Mountain Dew. We had fun making it.

We had made the cake the night before and froze it. We made it in a little under an hour. Josh was coming up with some great ideas. Lucky for us, Todd loved the cake.

Happy Birthday Todd, Happy 39!

Happy Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day. Of course the girls mauled Daddy from the time he got up. We made breakfast and just had a fun time together. Normally our ward gives out DAD's Root Beer but not this year. Maybe the Mother's Day flowers had cost too much and now the dads are paying for it.

We gave Dad a calendar for his desk with pictures and sayings on it that we made online. He got the Tremors movie pack. He loves that movie. It had all 4 of them in there. Yeah, I didn't even know there were 4 Tremors movies. He got some clothes and stuff. The girls gave him books they picked out at Seagull Book. Chloee's was a coupon book and Halle's was a "I love you daddy" book.

They did the questionnaire thing in primary, like they did on Mother's Day. Here's what Chloee wrote about Josh:

My Dad's name is Josh.

My Dad is I don't know old.
My dad has brown hair.
My dad drives a white.
When my Dad goes to work, he does his computer.
My Dad is really good at dishes.
If I could give my dad anything, I would give him a book.
My Dad's favorite thing to drink is Pepsi.
My Dad's favorite food is PB&J sandwiches.
When my Dad is not working, he likes to do stuff that read books.
I know my Dad loves me because mom tells me.
My favorite thing to do with my dad is hug him.
My Dad makes me laugh when he makes mom laugh.
My Dad doesn't like it when I bad stuff.
I love my Dad because Mommy told me.

Evidently we both love to do the dishes. She wrote that on both of our lists. I don't know where she got the Pepsi thing, it's Dr. Pepper all the way. Also, the only reason she loves Josh is because I tell her to? Interesting.

Josh is an amazing husband and father. He is one of kind. I feel very grateful to have him as my husband. He is an incredible father who loves his 2 little girls so much. He is so patient and understanding with them, something I could work on. There have been a lot of things that have been rough and scary in our time together. When things get tough, people either fight or flight. I'm so very grateful for the insurmountable amount of FIGHT that is in my husband, especially when flight would have been the easy choice. I love you!!!



MY DAD---

I wanted to put up a small post about my Dad on this Father's Day. My Dad is amazing. I talked with him for probably 45 minutes on Father's Day. We both cried on the phone about things we were sharing with one another. There are many things I love about my Dad but one is how patriotic he is. My Dad bleeds RED, WHITE and BLUE.

Last year after Micheal died, he ran the Freedom Run on Independence Day. It was his 20th year running it and it was a big deal. The whole family got together to run it with him. I mean all of the extended family, everyone. My Dad carried this American Flag the entire 9.3 miles in honor of Micheal. Once again, this year he ran the Freedom Run and he ran with that flag for Micheal through the entire race. He says he'll do it every year, even if he has to crawl across the finish line. He may have to do that down the road, he turns 60 next year. :)

Love you, Dad!

Our Trip To St. George

Back at the end of May, Amy, myself and the 4 kiddos made a trek to St. George to see my sister, Annie and her family. They live in California but were going to be in St. George for a reunion on Marcus' side of the family. Yeah, I'm surprised everything fit in the back of the suburban. I always OVER PACK (that's an understatement).

And the crazy journey begins.

Thank heaven that Hals slept for a little bit on the way down. She HATES to be strapped down. That simply means that she isn't destroying something, which does not make her happy.

Susan let us use her suburban so that we'd only have to take 1 car. THANK YOU!!! The DVD player wouldn't work, just the VCR and the only movie we had was The Secret of Nymh. Let's just say that it got watched A LOT!

When we made a potty stop in Beaver, there was this van parked next to us. I leaned over to Amy and told her that the guys had dreads and was dressed like a total hippie. Amy then starts bursting into laughter and said, "You have to look at him. He's eating out of a huge tupperware, shoveling food into his mouth. I mean that's Sterilite size tupperware. It looks like a trough." I glanced over and sure enough I saw everything she described. I laughed so hard, I was crying. It was one of those you had to be there moments!

Amy got some dried apricots in Beaver. They were awful.

When we got there Hals did anything but slow down. Her feet are proof!

One thing you know you'll always experience with Annie and Marcus is that you'll discover a new found game you love. We played games at night after the kids went to bed.

Marcus' family have a time share in St. George and we were able to get 2 of them. It was so nice, kitchen, laundry, 2 bedrooms with walk in closets, multiple bathrooms. It was heaven. Thank you so much.

We went to the St. George temple and visitors center.

All the grandkids, except the bun in the oven. Annie, not me! Of course Halle wouldn't stand by anyone. That girl has got to be independent.


This all happened within about 10 seconds:

Happy!

Screaming Mad!!!

Innocent!

We watched a movie on eternal families. To say the least, we all fell apart. No sense in putting makeup on that day. Lucky for me I hadn't put any on that day.

Lunch, yum!

Good thing fat and cute is in style. Good for Halle and myself. :)

The girls couldn't wait to go swimming.

At first Halle didn't really like the water but she came around. The kids had lots of fun jumping off the side and into the kiddie pool. It was about 2 feet, I think. We all took a nice long nap after that. Swim then nap, doesn't get much better than that.

We went to a park that night. Chloee was petting all the dogs that walked by.

Marcus loves ultimate frisbee. There were some guys at the park playing, he asked if he could join in. Marcus is the one in the white visor. He's awesome. I saw him make some nice dives.

We were all hysterically laughing about this guy's shorts. Seriously, these pictures don't do them justice. They were very short and tight.

Yeah, we call her butt-crack Chloee.

This guy had such a cool yard. I had to have a picture.

On our departure out, we went and ate at a place called China Palace. The kids were crazy. Sierra dumped rice all over Annie, Halle was barking and screaming at people, the kids were just plain crazy. People around us just couldn't stop staring at us. Annie joked that people probably thought we were polygamists because there was just one man, Marcus, 3 women, 6 kids and one on the way. I can only imagine!

Seriously, they were all but kicking us out of there. We had to have a pic in front of it.

One last pic with all the kids.

Oh yes, Hallsies fell asleep. We had to keep the sun roof open so that it would cause noise so she couldn't hear everyone else and therefore she'd go to sleep.

Yeah, not much later.... those eyes were open.

We stopped in Scipio on our way home because I was going to puke. I swear the chinese did not set well with me. The wind was INSANE!!! Amy's hair is a testament to that. We had stopped at a park. Kennet got out and just peed in front of the car.

As we were taking our break in Scipio, the only thing that would keep Halle quiet was if she was in the front. Clearly, she thinks she's going to be driving at a young age.

Halle cried a lot on the way home. I was about ready to cry myself. Although Kennet's hook did keep her happy for a while.

We had such a blast. It was great to see Annie and her family. That is a trip I will never forget and I don't think I'll be going on any road trips with Halle until she's a bit older. I learned my lesson!