July 4th 2014

Our 4th of July celebrations started early this year with the Freedom Festival 10K.  I was so happy to see my darling family cheering me on for the final stretch of the race.  It's just what I needed to finish off strong and better my time by almost a minute from last year.  I ended up finishing 7th in my age division and averaging a 7:44 mile.  Not too shabby, if I say so myself.  Randy headed to the golf course to play with my dad and I took the boys to Kneaders for a delicious breakfast.  We had some time to kill before the swimming pool opened so we watched the parade and met Sarah for some water ballin' fun. 

There isn't a cuter carni worker around.  I'm so proud of Sarah and Brett.  They are working their butts off this summer to make Wave Runner's successful.

Hank and Max could stay in the balls all day!  Unfortunately for them, there was a huge line of paying customers waiting so they had to get out.  Oh and it was hotter than hell! We were dripping with sweat walking back to the car.

None of us could wait to jump into the refreshing pool!

As long as Sam had his ninja turtles to play with he was as happy as can be.  He's turning into quite the little water baby this summer.  We came home and showered and then headed over for more 4th of July festivities at Scott and Jeri's.

We were so excited to see Rusty, Collette and Owen!  Look at our red white and blue.  That is a festive bunch.

Sam is a fan of ice cream cones...can you tell?

The toddler crowd were all fans!

Max's new haircut needed to be showcased in a selfie with me. Amazing.

Sparkler time!

After having a near heart attack from all the sparklers everywhere, it was finally time for the firework show.

Sam wasn't too sure about it.  Dyson was there to comfort him.

These pyros were ready!

Sam was not a fan.  He cried for most of the show until Scott had the genius idea to put these noise cancelling headphones on him.  He was finally starting to enjoy the show when...

One of the neighbors had a firework malfunction which sent a exploding spark directly towards the blanket we were sitting on.  Jenni, thankfully pushed Max out of the way, but unfortunately was hit worse than anyone else.

She ended up with second degree burns on her knee and ankle.

Rusty kindly bandaged her up.  She's being dramatic for these pictures but she really handled it so well.  I couldn't believe how tough she was.

I would've been crying like a baby.  We were pretty lucky that the injuries weren't more severe.  It's safe to say, Sam will be scared of fireworks for the rest of his life now!  Although our 4th ended on a dramatic note, it was such a fun day.  I don't think we could have fit one more activity in.