Tradition

 How many times do you need to do something before it becomes tradition?  I'm not sure, but we are calling - spending time with the R family for the 4th - tradition.  The last time we spent the holiday together was 2 years ago, but it always looks the same.  

There is always swimming involved

 There is always the ward breakfast involved - 

only this year it wasn't a fund raiser for the scouts, it was an Elder's Quorum activity that my husband was in charge of, so you know what that means...  I tease, he really did most of it but I did not escape without duties.  

 Backyard fireworks are always involved.  

Ethan had lots of fun hurting everyone's ears with firecrackers this year.  We had Megan and Sarah over as well.  

 Our friends from CA stopped thru on their way home from TX.  We had quite the motley crew at my house.  We loved every crazy moment of it.

 What fun is it coming to my house if you can't ride 4-wheelers?  The kids had fun going out every night and riding around the mesa - and up and down the street to pick up their riders.  

 Watson was the star of the show and loved having everyone around after he got scolded for growling and nipping at the kids.  He spent a day tethered to me and he was over being a punk.  I forgot I had a meeting one night so Jo was left to do the cooking.  She had to try her hand at Schnitzel and she did a fabulous job and so did the kids that helped her.  

Emma and her friend have become quite the crafty divas.  They are always looking up stuff on a crafty site that lets you sell your crap to people that want it.  They never want to pay someone else, so they do their own.  This week alone they made a ton of these shirts (you can kinda see all of them piled up on the floor in the bottom middle pic).  They painted tights with birds etc on them.  They made candle holders with those clear stones.  Every time they get together, the craft store is involved.

Emma also prides herself on being the "Mary Poppins" of babysitting and she took the little kids to the craft store one day and then took them outside to make all their little crafts - I wish I had pictures but it was the day Jared had his surgery and Jo was stuck at my house waiting for the vacuum repair man (I have a built in vacuum).  Emma is always saving the day like that.  She's got super skills when it comes to entertaining kids.  Jo said "everyone needs an Emma."