We ended up driving out the morning of the party. We usually go out beforehand and drive home the next day, but we were waiting for the "quarantine period" for Rylee (the last one in the family to get a fever) to be over. We stopped at my parent's house (where we were sleeping) to change into swimming suits and get everything ready for bed because we knew it was going to be a late night. Then we grabbed some Panda Express because Ben and I were starving and went over to my grandma's house, where the water party was in full swing!
The kids were super excited for the water slides and "all the snacks"! This year they had Nutella that you could dip graham crackers in and Parker thought it was super yummy.
Oliver thought the kiddie pool was the best thing ever! I tried taking him into a bigger pool with me to visit with other people, but he wanted to crawl (not sit with Mom!) and the water was too deep. But this little pool was perfect for him and he was in heaven.
He also loves all things that roll, so this empty water bottle in the pool was his favorite toy ever.
Ashtyn going down the giant slide! She did go down from the top once, but hurt her leg and decided she liked going down from partway up.
Thoroughly enjoying an ice cream break!
The bounce house!
And some popcorn. After cleaning up the water party, we had the yummy barbecue. One of my favorite parts of the 4th of July party is my aunt Kim's potato salad.
After the barbecue, it was time for fireworks! The girls love the fireworks. I think it's Ashtyn's favorite part of the party (she can tell me what fireworks they did several years past).
Their matching expressions 😂 they aren't related at all ...
I fed Oliver and then Ben went and put him down at my parents' house before coming back for the rest of the fireworks (my parents were there). It was really nice to be able to put him down to for bed at the normal time.
My cousins Makayla and Adilynne helped the girls light their smoke bombs and tanks.
It makes my heart so happy to see them helping my kids in this way because they were my little buddies when they were younger. I have such a tender place in my heart for them.
Parker found out that Caleb (my cousin's son) is also six and they became instant buddies. I don't know what he thought of her, but she thought he was just the greatest and wanted to be with him for the entire party.
The next day, we hung out at my mom's house. The kids got to play in her backyard and have a movie party when she babysat so Ben and I could go on a date. Oliver did pretty good with sleeping--his first nap was only 20 minutes, but then his second nap was 2 hours, and he went down for the night really well. He also surprised me by sleeping in until he was supposed to both mornings.
Wednesday morning, we met up with Luke's daughter and her kids at the splash park. The kids were so excited to see their cousins! It works out perfectly, because each child has a cousin around their age and they are best buddies.
Oliver did really well at the splash park even though it was his naptime. He sat with me and watched his sisters a whole bunch and then crawled around trying to eat leaves.
Ashtyn and Claire loved the spash park and didn't mind getting wet. Parker and Olivia were a lot more timid about it and really worried about other kids spraying them. They still managed to have fun though!
Rylee was the one least excited about being there. She had a lot of fun, but I think we had worn her out. She told me she was ready to go probably five times before we left and at one point, laid down on the bench. Grandma Dee's cookies consoled her until everyone else was ready to go.
Cousins!
Grandma Dee holding baby Cameron!
Oliver is in a stage where he won't let her hold him very much (but he did really well when we left on our date at least!).
We love Grandma Dee!
After the water park, we stopped at Chic Fil A. I've wanted Chic Fil A nuggets since I was pregnant with Oliver. I don't eat flour when pregnant, so I didn't get them then and we just haven't gone the couple of times we've come out since having him, so I finally got my fix 😂
Then we packed up and drove home. The drive there and back both went really well. The kids just watched movies and ate snacks out of their snack bags I had given them. Oliver slept a couple times and any time he would start crying, I'd hand him a Ritz cracker and it worked like a charm (until we ran out of crackers the last little bit of the trip 😂).
It was only 6:30 when we got back to Vernal, so we stopped at Ben's parents' house on the way home and let the kids hang out outside. We hadn't really been over for awhile because of Covid and then traveling, so it was a really nice way to spend the time until bedtime.
We had so much fun on our trip! I'm really grateful we were able to go and for everyone who made it so wonderful 💗
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