Fourth of July

 We had a great fourth of July! It was nice and relaxing though different from years past. The city of Kent made it so lighting your own fireworks is illegal and so the traditional lighting of fireworks at Dale and Margaret's house was no longer and Nate was super disappointed by it all but we made the best of it and the day turned out awesome.

Paige has been really excited about fourth of July this year and on the 3rd she decorated our apartment for the holiday. She hung up a firework picture she did the year before and drew fireworks all over our balcony window. She also created this beautiful picture to hang on our fridge. She is quite the artistic one.

We started the day having a nice morning of sleeping in and I made a few desserts for the bbq tonight and then we headed over to Dale and Margaret's to make some root beer. I got lucky when I went to Fred Meyer to get the dry ice and got the last bag. I don't know what I would have done if there wasn't any left. We got the root beer made and ate a quick lunch and then headed out to the reservation to buy some fireworks.

Lots and lots of fireworks for sale- Nate took his time walking around feeling it out to talk to the right person to get the perfect deal.

 He even used Paige this year to help him get a better deal. :)

 Part of the fireworks we got- Nate got such a good deal. Paige is so excited to light some fireworks this year. She has grown a lot in the years. This is the first year where she is really excited about it all and doesn't get too scared when there is a loud firework.

 Then for dinner we enjoyed a great barbecue. It is always great food and it was nice just to visit and relax.

It was this cute guy's first fourth of July.

 These two girls played the entire evening. It was cute to watch them and they kept each other entertained.

 Then the boys started the sponge water fight. Whenever Nate and Adam get together the little kid comes out in both of them. It was so much fun to watch them and then their two girls join in on the fun. It was lots of smiles and laughter.

 She thinks she is so funny. :)

You can still light fireworks in Covington so Anna and Scott were nice enough to have us over to let us light some fireworks for the evening. It wasn't quite the same but Nate loves lighting fireworks and I am so happy that he got to be able to do it. Paige loved watching it all too. She loved pop-its and smoke bombs the most. The loud ones she didn't like as much but if it was pretty and sparkly then it was okay. We didn't even get to light all of our fireworks since the evening was pushed back a little and we only had about two hours to light them. Nate would have stayed longer to light the rest but Paige and I really wanted see the fireworks at Lake Meridian so Nate sacrificed for us. I felt really bad but I love watching the big fireworks.

 These two we were in heaven and loved every minute of lighting their fireworks.

 One of the pretty fountains- my favorite firework to see lit.

 We ended the light with the spectacular show at Lake Meridian which we loved and then headed home. The fireworks were pretty loud outside our apartment so it took me awhile to fall asleep but it was such a great and fun-filled day.