Happy Fourth of July!

I have always loved the Fourth of July. I always tell my boys it is my favorite when they ask "What is your favorite holiday?" I think it's because I just have lots of really good memories of spending the fourth out on a ski boat in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, getting super tan and eating lots of chips and junk food, and then watching the fireworks on the grass at night. We would either watch them at Lakeside Park in Fond du Lac or at the Osthoff on Elkhart Lake once I was a teenager. My friend's parents usually got a rental there over the holiday so we used to bum off of her since it was such a nice place. I just loved the lazy Summer feeling that was always going on during that holiday. Good food, sun, water skiing, what more can you ask for? It makes me sad that we don't have lots of nice lakes close to Rexburg…. or a ski boat. haha

But, this year I INSISTED that we go to the Idaho Falls fireworks show. Every year about a week before the Fourth of July, everyone from Idaho starts posting this top ten list of Fireworks shows around the country and Idaho Falls is number two on the list. Second only to Philadelphia. While i do somewhat question the credibility of this list, it has still motivated me enough to want to go see them for the first time. I had wanted to go in the past, but Josh always whined and complained so bad and told me about how we would be stuck in traffic on the way home for HOURS that we always decided not to go. But this year, I would not be deterred. I was going to see those friggin' number two fireworks.

Oh, but first! We had the parade in the morning (Josh always has to work that) and it's kind of a bonus because he always gets there early and parks his car, sets up my lawn chairs, and saves me a really good spot. So then I pull in around 9:45 (it starts at 10) and get dirty looks as he scoots his car over and I park mine next to it. It's great. That and the free carousel pass we get are really the only two perks of the job. haha So anyways! The boys were super excited because Devin (Josh's cousin who just opened a Mac store) asked them to help throw candy on his "float" (really just a pick-up with sign on it… like most of the "floats" in the Rexburg parade.) But they had fun none the less! I sat with Avery and Josh walked around, timidly trying to tell people to please back up, since they were about 20 feet into the street. (I told him that when I worked at Disney World that was my job for every parade and he needed to be more forceful!) When the parade ended we came back home and Avery took a nap while the boys had some fun playing in the sprinkler outside. (See photo of Gabe shooting Caleb's butt with the hose)

Then that night, around 7:00, we started our trip to the fireworks. They start at about 10, so you may say we were getting there super early. But actually, there are people that go and CAMP for three days prior, just to stake out a great spot. That's a little crazy, but that's what I have been told about how much madness these fireworks cause. We were so lucky to have our friends Tiff and Scott who let us hang with them in the parking lot of a hotel her sister manages. We got there at about 7:30 and they had the best corner of the lot sectioned off with police tape and all these chairs set up. Hahaha Tiff is someone to have in your corner. She means business. (No, I am not just talking in the third person, she is actually named Tiff.) So we hung out, ate snacks, and waited until the show began.

The boys were playing with the other kids with the sparklers and things. I really thought someone was going to catch on fire. Luckily no one did. Caleb had a melt down over glow sticks though. I really think sometimes that kid is bipolar. During the fireworks, one second he was heard saying "This is the best Fourth of July ever!" and then about ten minutes later, when he lost his glow sticks, he was like, "Raise your hand if you think this is the WORST fourth of July ever." I am hoping his bad attitude is just mostly from a lack of sleep and not a serious mental problem. All three of our kids fell asleep almost instantly on the car ride home. Avery still had all her little glow sticks on so she looked like a little glow-in-the-dark robot baby. It was so cute.

Anyways, was it worth it? Yes! I thought it was really good! And the ride home was not bad at all. We stayed away from HWY 20 and took 15 instead and got home in about 45 minutes. We never really even came to a standstill. It was totally not as bad as Josh had made it out to be. He even admitted this year was great compared to the other two times he went. (Once with his dad, who had serious road rage, and once with some teenage friends)

So here are some pictures of our fourth of July!

Wisconsin Trip

We made it back from our yearly Wisconsin trip! This year we left on Wednesday, June 18th and drove for two days, arriving on Thursday night. We went the northern route through North Dakota and then on down through Minneapolis, which I have decided I like better than going through South Dakota and southern Minnesota. It seems like you are less out in the middle of nowhere for long stretches of time.

Anyways! Friday night I did my little art show at Bookworld on Main Street (aka: the small event that could make my entire trip a Tax Deduction….haha). On Sunday, June 22, 2014 - Gabe was finally baptized! Yay! Poor kid has been waiting since March to do that. I would have to say that it was worth the wait. It was really nice. Everything went really smoothly and my mom did a little lunch at the church for everyone from the branch who had stayed. I did a short talk about the Holy Ghost and my mom did one about baptism.

Then on Tuesday, Gabe and Caleb came with me and Josh to Noah's Ark (America's Largest water park) and we had a blast. Avery stayed home with my mom. She would've been too small for all the water slides anyways. We had a good day for weather and the lines were pretty small, being a Tuesday. There were a couple of rides that we waited in line for and then Caleb decided, maybe he wasn't quote ready for after all. Haha I had to walk him back down off the the "Black Anaconda" and "Stingray." I will post a picture of each one of those below so this explanation will make sense. On the "Black Anaconda" you go with three people in a tube, one person behind the next so you are in a line. Well we had told Caleb he could be in the middle between me and Josh. But when we got to the front of the line, the guy told us the smallest person had to be in the front and the biggest in the back. Therefore, Caleb would have to be in the front. Me and Josh got into the tube. Caleb stood on the deck, shaking his head no with a face like, "No way in hell I am getting that tube." hahaha So I took the walk of shame with him back down the steps and passed everyone in line, as many parents gave me the sympathetic "We've been there too…" smile. After Josh got down (they let him join another group and Gabe had gone with a group of two other boys we met in line) even Josh admitted, "Yeah, it was pretty intense. It was probably best he didn't go." haha

Then on the Stingray, there are two people that sit facing each other on a double tube. You basically get pushed off this cliff where your tube goes down a giant u-shaped slide and back up to the other side. Well they told Caleb that he would have to go down it facing backwards and he was just not about to let someone push him off a cliff on a tube going backwards. I guess it's good that we have a child that is strong enough to say "no" when he isn't comfortable with something though. Hopefully that lasts into his teenage years.

Other favorite things at Noah's Ar were the Lazy river and the Wave Pool. The boys LOVED the wave pool. Luckily they have life vests available for them to wear now, so they both did. I remember almost dying in the wave pool as a kid so I decided to sunbathe while Josh took them in.

So that was Noah's Ark!

Other highlights of our trip were going to Kohler beach, riding go-carts, bumper boats, and mini-golf at the Fondy Sports park, eating at Culver's at least 8 times (seriously), having dinner with my old friend Gini and her husband, Drake, going to the children's museum, doing the rides at Lakeside Park with grandpa Bestor (my grandpa), the fondy watermark (twice), me shopping with my mom at the outlets and rummage sales, and picking strawberries. It was pretty rainy, lots of cloudy days, but we still squeezed in.

On Sunday, June 29th, Josh blessed Rachel's new baby, Brayden in church. Then afterwards my mom invited all of the Dahlke relatives over for a BBQ. It was good to see some of my cousins that I haven't seen in forever.

Then speaking of people I haven't seen in forever, on Monday even my dad joined the party. We went swimming with my brother's family (they arrived on Saturday, right near the end of our trip) and the kids had a lot of fun. Then grandpa Bestor took us out for Chinese food. The next morning, Tuesday, July 1st, we headed out early in the morning.

It was a really fun trip. We were lucky my grandma let us stay at her condo. She has a basement with a bedroom and living space and bathroom so we were able to spread out. With my sister and her two kids still living with my mom, there was literally no room for us in the inn.

So that as our trip! Pictures to come!