Roadtrip Part 4

Thursday was just a low key day playing with the cousins and swimming at my dads. That evening we went to dinner with Gramma Mary. 

Friday was the 4th of July. We got decked out in our festive gear and drove to Menan. They always have a HUGE celebration in which all the neighboring towns come to. The carnival runs all day and the parade starts at 2. We were lucky this year as almost all of our family made it!!!

Gramma Watson, and her sister Lois. Aunt Diana, Megan, James and their 3 kids. Uncle Rick, his wife Carol and Carol's two kids with their families came. Uncle Rand, Caroline and their three girls with two husbands and a boyfriend were there (they live next door to Gramma watson.) My mom, Chelsey and Spencer, me and our three kids were there (obviously.) Aunt Laura made it from Boise and to our surprise Justin, his girlfriend and their three kids came! I hadn't seen Justin since my wedding and I don't care that the only reason he came was because he lost a bet on the super bowl :)

Aunt Diana had the idea to rent this giant bouncy house....man did the kids LOVE it! They all jumped and played in the pools and in that bouncy house for about 4 hours! The hit was jump into the pool - get soaked, then run to the bouncy house and go down the slide before you got dry.

Grayson just LOVED this little pinwheel. He would run back and forth across the lawn and giggle as it turned in the wind. So cute

Grayson stole Spencer's hat and glasses when he wasn't looking....he thought he was pretty funny!

That night, instead of staying in Menan for fireworks we elected to go back to Megan's to put the younger two down. The older ones had a hayday toasting smores again, playing with sparklers, and jumping on the trampoline with glow necklaces and bracelets. They had some elaborate ninja game going on - we couldn't keep up. The Idaho Falls fireworks were barely visible from their house, but I was so happy to just walk downstairs after it was over!

That night I didn't sleep well thinking and rethinking what I needed to pack for the next day. I was awakened around 3am by Grayson hysterically laughing. He told me that he opened his water bottle in the car and it sprayed Zachey in the face....he went on and on in some gibberish and went back to bed - funny the things kids dream of!

The next morning we loaded up, squeezed in the car and picked up Gramma Mary. Mom rode back with the baby basket on her lap which turned out to be a great bed for George - grayson's favorite stuffed animal. We made a few stops and got to Cheyanne at a decent hour. We went swimming briefly and tried to get everyone to bed. Kenna slept in Gramma Mary's room and mom and the boys were in a room with me. All was well - aside from Grayson trying to push me out of bed, as per usual. Around 6:30 we were all jarred awake by the fire alarm....awesome. Gramma Rue was in the shower so I rushed in the hall to see if it was legit. I heard someone say that it was the waffle maker and that we could stay in our rooms. I went back inside to two freaked out boys and covered the siren in our room with a pillow. That seemed to muffle it just fine. Kenna came running in saying "what's going on?" Gramma slept through the alarm and they had no idea what to do. Luckily I had a key to let them back in their room after it stopped and we all went to breakfast - what a day.

The ride back was long but fairly uneventful. We hit some construction that put us back about 45 minutes...but the kids did great.

I feel so fortunate to be able to spend this precious time with my family and to experience the world thorough my kids eyes! While there may have been some bickering and picking at eachother - they really had a great time and so did I! We missed daddy desperately, but good to know that we can be world travelers! 4000 miles, 7 states and 10 days, so fun!!