A happy 4th..mostly

The weather for the fourth of July was very mild. It was just right as far as I was concerned. It is usually either very, very hot, or rainy and cool. The day started out overcast and cool, but not cold. The sun came out occasionally so that it warmed up and was just right all day long(in my opinion).

Richard had to work from home in the morning monitoring the data center. His company was bought by a big corporation who thinned out the employees with early retirement offers and layoffs. This has put a lot of pressure on the remaining employees, so in Richards group, they have to take turns on the weekends(and holidays) watching for errors and such.

So I got the kids up early and headed off to the parade downtown Hillsboro. I thought about taking the year off, but we have done this for the last few years and the little kids love it. And once it gets going I must admit its pretty fun! We sit on the corner at Bagley park and the kids always get lots of candy thrown at them! This year the older kids came along. My sister Megan and her family joined us again which is always fun. We got there two hours early to get our spot right on the edge of the street and it was a long wait. The kids went and played on the playground for a while which is part of the strategy of sitting at the park.

After the parade we came home and Joseph was ready for a nap. I explained to him that we would be up late watching fireworks so he needed to get some extra rest. That worked and he gladly laid down and rested for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, Megan's bunch took our three older kids to the movie "WALL-E". I did not go since Joseph was sleeping and sadly Richard had a migraine start up shortly after finishing his work. He took one of his miracle pills and it never got extremely bad, but he did spend the majority of the day in bed so as not to aggravate it. It was a very quiet afternoon, which was fine because that gave me time to make two batches of homemade ice cream for after fireworks! Actually it was not quiet at all, since the ice cream maker is VERY loud. But that was the only sound in the house for a while!! We haven't made ice cream in a long time so I looked up a couple recipes online and they turned out great!

In the evening I took the kids to my parents for a BBQ and then everyone came to our house for fireworks. Richard was able to put on a nice little show with Jeremy's help. Afterwards we had some yummy pound cake made by Megan with strawberries and ice cream. The ice cream was great, and now my family is begging for me to make more. It was easy enough, so I think it will be a new treat from time to time!

Annalina & Adrienne
Adrienne & her friend Reese
Megan was very popular as she passed out the popits!
Annalina, behing overwhelmed by noise, but in the safe and loving arms of Aunt Megan
Joseph was into the sparklers this year

Richard & Jake have been spent the weekend getting ready for boy scout camp on Monday. They will leave at 4am and won't be back until the following Saturday. I will miss them both! It is hard to be on my own with the kids the entire week, but I am grateful for the chance Jake has to go and earn merit badges and just have fun. This is his third year and he always has a great experience. And I am very relieved that Richard will be there with him. One of the great things about Jacob and camp is that he wants to fit in and be like all the other boys, so he is open to things he would never try at home. The first year he went he discovered he liked fish when someone caught a rainbow trout and fixed it for dinner. Everyone else was trying it, so he did too(something he would NEVER do at home!!). Now he likes salmon and shrimp as well. Scout camp is a wonderful experience for Jacob and I am glad he gets to go each year. I am proud of how hard he works at it and how seriously he takes it. He will earn his Star Scout rank in August and the only has two more to go to get his Eagle Scout rank!