Happy Fourth of July... in October!

The second day of our vacation was in honor of THE FOURTH OF JULY.

Matt and Corinda were in charge and did a "BANG UP" job!!
(yes my horrible puns will continue)

The day began with some sidewalk chalk. Teacher Laura taught the kids how to draw their very own stars. Emma is still getting the hang of it, but making progress.

We then ventured over to Matt and Corinda's home - where AMAZING Corinda had a lesson planned, complete with recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, discussion of our freedoms, and an awesome DANCE party to three different patriotic songs. With the grand finale as Springsteen's "Coming to America"! It was super fun.

Then she let the kids decorate mini fruit pizzas intended to look like American flags. I took a picture of the ones the adults made, because surprisingly enough, the kids cookies did not in fact look like American flags.


WHAAA??? The American flag doesn't have purple sprinkles?? For shame.

Ben's turned out to be the closest resemblance... WAY TO GO BENNY BOOPS.

Of course he is 2 years older than the other three children and already in Kindergarten. :)

At least Tyler had the right color scheme.

My Mom worked poor Grandpa so hard in wedding preparations that he and his dog Mister had to take a break once in awhile.

Grandpa seriously woke up ALMOST every morning and made us pancakes, eggs and sausage. YUM. What a guy.

Since camping and the Fourth of July go hand-in-hand. We decided to take our party on the road and head up to the Red River Gorge. It was an absolutely SPECTACULAR drive. Fall colors abounding in rich tones that us Arizona folk can barely comprehend.

Our super Mom made tin foil dinners which we cooked over the open fire, with yummy watermelon and followed with s'mores.



Emma experiencing her first s'more. I know, I know. We're horrible parents.

She's not even four yet, give me a break.

And yes, she LOVED them.





Grandpa, Jeff and Glen stayed overnight and went "real" camping with Ben and Tyler. The rest of us decided to opt out and returned to our nice warm, dry beds.




It was a WONDERFUL fun, full, patriotic day!!