2012 4th of July

I know many of you already saw all the pictures from our 4th of July when I posted them on Facebook, so I'll post just a few for those that didn't see them or aren't on Facebook. As we have always done, we went out to Grayland to spend time with Kevin's family. The barbecue is always held at his uncle's house. It was especially fun this year, as the next generation of kids have gotten old enough to really play and have fun together. It was also nice for me that this was the first time that I wasn't nursing a baby since 2008 (all my babies have been fairly long-nursers so much of my time was spent inside on the couch for the previous four years!)! :)

Jake was the star of the evening. Many of Kevin's extended family hadn't seen Jake since last year's 4th of July barbecue when he was just a little baby. So they were quite amazed at the cute little toddler he had become.

After the barbecue, everyone headed down to Tokeland for the fireworks show. Kevin and I originally weren't going to go since it would make getting home to Olympia so late, but since Abby and Ben were going to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's out there, we decided to go to help out.

While there were some fun moments (especially sparklers before the show), we were overwhelmed by the loudness of fireworks close by near a fireworks stand, Kevin spent over half the show trying to track down a bathroom with and for Ben, Jake just kept struggling in my arms and saying "down, down!" (not a good idea since we were on top of the rocks overlooking water), and the show just went on and on, so we ended up leaving early (at least we beat the traffic :). Kevin, Jake and I didn't get home to Olympia until after 1am....I think next year we will do without the fireworks show. ;) Oh, and the big kids had a BLAST at Grandpa and Grandma's for two nights. *sigh* They are growing up so fast. :(