Independence Day 2012

We always enjoy our 4th's of July.  We enjoy taking our dinner with us, scouting out a spot hours early, sitting in the sweltering heat, and figuring out what to do for those many hours.  Eventually, someone always has to use the restroom and it's our great excuse to buy a soda and sit in the air conditioned restaurant for as long as we can.  This year, our brother-in-law came with us.  In the morning, we attended our church Scout group breakfast.  In the afternoon, we went downtown and listened to some live music, visited booths and went on a "hay ride".  Entegra enjoyed playing card games with Daddy and Uncle Jon or as they've been calling him, Uncle Jonny.

The fireworks were great as usual.  They were probably a little too much this year.  I think it went on for over 20 mins!  Bracken was scared most of the time, which makes sense since the fireworks percussion sound ricochet through our bodies.  If I'm remembering my years correctly, Bracken even managed to fall asleep while I was holding his ears.

Heiner Family Visit February 2012

Benjamin's parents were able to come visit us for about a week.  I probably wasn't the best company, but I'll get to that in a later post.
The kids absolutely loved their visit and took advantage of any minute they could with either of their grandparents.

Kurt (Grandpa) was almost immediately set to work teaching Benjamin how to build our basement.

Mary (Grandma) sang songs and played with the very willing children.

We had a great visit.  Benjamin went with his dad to Lowe's and bought a TON of necessary items for building up the basement.  Later, Ben's siblings and their kids all came over as well, except for the family in Oregon.  His brothers were all very helpful with working in the basement.  At some point Jon and Ann-Marie noticed the playhouse sitting outside, waiting to be played with, and cleaned it up for the kids to play with on the deck.  They are still having a blast with it.

See the four kids there trying to be patient, while waiting for Uncle Jon to clean off the play house?

On Monday, we went to Mt. Vernon which is George Washington's house.

We had a very fun visit!  It was so nice to see them after such a long time.