Happy 3rd of July!!

We celebrated the 4th of July a day early by going to a barbecue at a friend's house on base. The Shafers are a family in our ward and had a bunch of families over for some good food and fun. There were playgrounds to play on, pools to splash in and water guns to squirt. Luckily I thought ahead and dressed 75% of the kids in their bathing suits so once the water activities broke out, they were ready. The oldest child didn't care about getting soaked in his clothes, as long as his precious I touch stayed dry. Here are the kids having fun:



Here's Mason right after he just wiped a whole bunch of smooches from me off of him. Broke my heart!


The highlight of the afternoon was a kickball game. To say that our children aren't extremely athletic is perhaps an understatement. Knowledge about Star Wars, ancient Greece and Rome, Barbie movies and even Book of Mormon stories top their list of readily accessible and retrievable data from their cerebellum but when quizzed on what a pop up foul is and how many outs make up an inning, they aren't gonna make it to the bonus round in Jeopardy. But, it was soooo awesome to watch them play kickball with a bunch of other kids. The cutest was Mason, of course. I stood with him as he kicked the ball and ran with him to first base. Then Ella joined us and we ran to second. After another kick we made it to third base, and before you knew it, we were running to home plate. He had a blast. After his turn, and the next kicker made it to first, Mason thought it was his turn again and just started running around the bases. No one stopped him. He had a blast.
Here he is at first base:

Here are Colton and Jaxon playing kickball:



We came home dirty, sweaty, hot, and tired: so in otherwords, a successful outing. May they sleep long and well tonight!!