4th of July

We had a good old time here out in Grand Junction on the fourth of July (granted we didn't have any friends or family around, weren't able to have a BBQ, and fireworks weren't allowed due to fires...)

Hey, we still enjoyed ourselves.

I told Eden all about Independence Day and what the holiday was all about.  We even did a little craft where we made a little George Washington from a toilet paper roll.  I wish I took a picture of the actual one Eden made...but it was basically the same, just colored in lots of blue and red stripes and I believe his hair was orange.

For breakfast we had waffles with whipped cream and then I decorated them with blueberries and raspberries to look like a flag.

We went to Wally World and bought ourselves some red and blue ribbons to put in the girl's hair as well as little flags for them to carry around.

Eden went around telling EVERYONE "Happy Independence Day!"

And later on we went to the downtown parade.  I'm pretty amazed how many people showed up for such a small parade.  And by small, I mean REALLY small.  "Downtown" is such a small street that there were a few LITTLE floats to pass by but there weren't any marching bands or motorcycle cops.  Didn't quite seem like a parade without those.

The most excitement and cheering came when a mini trailer-looking float with rugged guys holding guns came riding down with a sign for the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms.

The quietest the parade got was when the democrats (all 3 of them) came marching down the road.

But the girls were cute as ever.  Eden was so excited to wear red, white and blue.

 And I tried to do something fun with Eden's hair.  I turned out good in the end.

And I had to give Leila a few little ribbons in her hair as well.

Overall, it was fun.  Nothing super exciting, but fun.

Camping at Oowah Lake

Friends invited us to go camping with them overnight outside of Moab.  Oh...a little camping trip was EXACTLY what we needed.

Although, we have a serious lack of pictures.

You know the camping trip was awesome when the kids are dead asleep on the trip home.

 Here's Leila playing under our picnic table.  She LOVED being in the dirt all day long. It never took long for her clothes to become completely covered with dirt.

And here's a little video showing the campground.  You have to look closely at Leila's belly, the main reason we took the video.  Her white shirt is completely BLACK in front because of the dirt.

Its not the best video...but I was so excited that a video actually worked on my blog that I can't help but post it.

We had lots of fun on our short little trip.  We went boating and swimming (as much as we could handle the cold), ate tin foil dinners and s'mores, went on a small hike around the "lake" that looked more like a large pond, and just had fun with friends.  Oh, not to mention that we stopped at a place after in Moab that has the most delicious snow cones known to man....Tropical Ice?  I think that was the name....maybe.

It was so good to get Eden out in the dirt.  Before she came on the trip she doubted my sanity when I told her that we would swim in the lake....she thought it was too dirty and probably disease ridden.  When we got there, she was MORTIFIED at the idea of the outhouse and decided peeing in the trees was a MUCH better option (which I probably would agree).  She also didn't like the idea of getting dirty or eating food with a little bit of fire burned edges.  It took a bit, but by the end she loved it and keeps telling us that we need to go back.


Leila caught on to life in the wild really quickly.  Minutes after getting there Tyson was so proud to see that Leila had already searched out two big rocks and was happily banging them together.  Although she did FALL quite a few times and got lots of little scratches all over her face...and she probably ate more dirt than food in the end.

Hillary and Shad were the friends who invited us on the camp out.  Their little 3 year old is good friends with Eden and Leila loves little baby Claire.  We'll miss them dearly when we leave Grand Junction.