Happy 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July! It began with watching fireworks on July 3rd. Our town has volunteer firefighters and they do the fireworks on the 3rd so that the firefighters can be with their families on the 4th. We headed over to the church because it has a great view of the fireworks and not a lot of people. We took Jacob's bike with us and I was determined to teach him how to ride without training wheels. I have to say it was the easiest job ever. After only a couple tries he was off and riding with no help at all. I tried to help and he would just say "I don't need help Mom". Thinking about his response I realize that we are passing milestones every day. Time is going by quickly and my children are growing way too fast!

The next day, July 4th, we participated in our Ward's first ever triathlon. Dusty was on a team where he did the swimming portion. I was on a different team where I did the running. The race was set up like so: the bikers raced from the church to the end of the walking/biking trail at the fairgrounds and then back to the pool. The biker would then tag their swimming teammate who would then swim 10 lengths of the pool. After this, the swimming partner would tag the running partner. This teammate would run from the pool to the soccer fields, one lap around the soccer fields and then back on the trail, past the pool, and all the way to the Sidney Pond. Dusty's team took Bronze. My team was pleased to just finish the race. Let me tell you, I don't think that my thighs have ever hurt that bad! I could not even move the next day after running that far (2.5 miles).

Our kids also participated in the kids race, which was to run around the pond 2 full times. Jacob and Alexis were fierce competitors with their friends and did awesome. Emma ran the race with Dusty. She was such a trooper and did the whole race. Just imagine her little, teeny legs running like crazy. All the other kids her age only went once around the pond, or got bored. But she was determined to finish. In the end, all the kids lined up and gave her high-fives as she ran by them. Everyone was cheering her on. She was so proud of herself, but I think Dusty and I might have been even more proud. This just proves how much fight she has in her (from the day she was born she had to fight to live). I believe that doing this race as a family has instilled some positive seeds in all of us. I came out of the race realizing that I need to run more often. The kids came away from the race knowing that they can do this type of thing and succeed. And Dusty came away planning on swimming laps at the community pool when they have adult swim time.

We went home for naps after the race and then went to the pool later that day. Emma and I relaxed by the kiddie pool and Alexis and Jacob swam with Dad in the big pool. This was when Alexis tackled the high-dive. She looked so big up there jumping into the water!

We did fireworks later that night as a family. We did lots of sparklers and then watched all of the fireworks going off in our neighborhood. Living in Utah we never saw fireworks like we have here. Many of our neighbors were doing huge fireworks and we just sat and watched the view from our driveway. In the end, Jacob ended up falling asleep in his chair.

The next day we tried to go fishing but had no luck finding a good spot at any of the local lakes (We tried Bridgeport Lake & Lake Minitaire). We decided to try fishing after church on Sunday and headed out to Chapell Lake. Our attempts to fish were laced with good intentions but our children and the lake had other plans. The lake was extremely mossy so we had a hard time finding a good spot. The kids brought stuff to play with and ended up in the water playing. They had fun but weren't really quiet. I think that Dusty had visions of sitting peacefully by the lake catching fish after fish while the children sat quietly playing in the sand giving each other hugs and kisses. Let's just say that the kids ended up wet and we didn't catch any fish. But I am not giving up. This is what I wanted to do for my birthday so I am going to see if we can try fishing the Sidney Pond tomorrow.

All in all we had a great weekend!! We had so much going on that it flew by and now here we are on Sunday night wishing we still had 3 more days of weekend.