Happy Independence Day!

We had quite a busy day on the 4th. We had a pancake breakfast at 8 in the morning at the church. It was super good and fun. There were lots of things for the kids to do too. Ethan had a blast.

Admiring the table decorations.

Participating in a bucket race.

He loved it

He was really good at squeezing the water out.

Having fun

Balloon toss

Facepainting too!

After that, we went up to my grandparents cabin in Lake Arrowhead for a BBQ with family and to watch the fireworks out on the lake. It was a lot of fun. We even had unexpected guests....

Mama Bear...

...and baby. Walking right under our porch! It was crazy! My grandma said it was the first time she had ever seen a bear there and they have had the cabin for 40 years.

Enjoying our food...Auntie, Grandma, Poppy, the nextdoor neighbor, mom and Adam

Lucas, Jason, Amanda, Silvia, Tyler (amanda's boyfriend) and a friend of Silvia's.

Jason and I at the dock house.

My boys!

Lauren

Bryan getting groovey, Lucas and Lauren

The moon

It was 9 and the fireworks hadn't started yet, so Ethan was tired.

Ethan and Gabe doing "Boom! Boom! Firepower!"

Fireworks started! You can see the barge they are shooting them from and that's how close we were.

Whoa! Jason and Ethan enjoyed it quite a bit.

I was glad to share the fireworks on the water with Jason and Ethan. We used to do it all the time when we were little, so it was really cool to pass that on to my husband and son.

The next day we went to Jason's parents and Sara had sparklers for the kids. They lit them off around dusk and loved them. These were taken with my phone.

Lily with her sparkler

Brookie

Jason helping Ethan

Happy Independence Day!