God Bless America

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,

Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,

Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,

As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

God Bless America,

Land that I love.

Stand beside her, and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans, white with foam

God bless America, My home sweet home.

-Irving Berlin

Our fourth of July celebration started off with a bang when, going into our girls' rooms to wake them for church, the screeching--not unlike that of an overzealous picolo pete at a fireworks celebration--was overwhelming. They were so excited for our jam-packed day of celebration ahead.

We spent the first part of the day at church, followed by a church bbq. There is nothing quite so special as the fellowship we have with our church family:

A rare picture of me on this side of the camera: (thanks Kaneda! :o)

Holland helps Zoe down the slide:

We spent the rest of the amazing day with friends and neighbors for an annual time of water tank dunking, water balloon tossing, and food.

There were fun "stations" all around:

Joel, being patriotic:

Love these girls:

Reese with our sweet neighbor, Maddie:

With my sweet friend Stephanie:

"Grandma" Patti got to be here with us this year!

Sweet girls, growing up! Eva, Sophie, and Elsa.

This year, a game of tug-o-war was added to our list of fun. I got to be a team captain, and though I got razzed for picking "ringers" and making it unfair for the rest of the teams, I assure you that no rules were broken when picking my team members. So what if two of the members are cage-fighters? So what if one of the girls named Katie has ripped arms? So what if the combined weight of our team was 3 times that of the other teams? Need I mention the story of the three little bears? Or was it the tortoise and the hare? Whatever the case, the motto here is: You snooze, you lose. :o)

I actually think it was Jacob, here who won it for all of us:

I'm not sure if Nathan (below) was actually working for the other team, or not. Here it looks as though he is trying the stop the flow of forward motion:

And the sweet smiles of victory!

Here we are, being oh-so-humble and taking a big bite out of our medals.

The kids get their turn! Holland and Mary are brave to be near the front and the kiddie pool full of water:

Porter and Liv get ready:

I've said it before, but now I say it again: Our Holland-girl is feisty:




I was pretty shocked at my girl's bravery. liv insisted on being dunked:

I could barely believe it myself, so I took a picture as evidence. The man pictured below must have bullied others on the playground. I'm sure of it. Here he is taking a shot at the target to make my daughter fall with a rather large playground ball.

And (gasp), her dad even takes a shot!

I employed "Uncle" Troy to scoop Liv out when she was dunked. He did not get paid, but when I look at the photo below, I think he should have been. It's very rare that an employee exhibits such quick response.

Liv immediately hugged Troy. It was deja vu as Liv was just baptized a few weeks ago by Troy, our Pastor! :o) Ok, so it's not really the same. But it was Pastor Troy who scooped her out of the water both times. :o)

A hug from friends is needed:

This picture makes me smile. Here Liv's ego is being fed. "Liv, you're so good at getting dunked!"


Eli looks a bit suspicious of these girls, but he's going along with it for the sake of archiving memories:

I tell you, I did not think our tall friend, Adam, could successfully get dunked. This picture does prove me wrong. I also think it proves that our daughter is even more brave. Where's her wet suit?

And as the sun lowered, we made noise, lights, and fun for the rest of the day: