Happy 4th of July!

The weekend has been a whirlwind of fun activities --all with Lance's family. They'd been exposed to Ella and Mia's hand/foot/mouth situation, and my family was looking to avoid that mess (can't blame 'em). I MISSED THEM THOUGH!
You can see on the picture of Sabrina that her mouth still has some sores on it. Heartbreaking! ...She does have a bit more of an appetite now, so that's good. It's been a slow recovery and we're not there yet... Mia is modeling the newest trend in super fun 4th fashions (thanks, Walmart!).

Sweet Bri.

We had an excellent night at Candace and Scotty's house with kids playing in the pool, and all of us doing fireworks. No one was in the mood to hit the massive Logan City display, but oddly enough, their street had an absolutely perfect view of the higher ones -it was a great show!

Me and Lanceycakes.

Me and Candace! *Man, it was a LONG day, and I was lookin' pretty rough!

We went to Hyrum Dam the next morning. Here's Bri in her super-cute swimsuit!! Too bad I didn't get a pic of her in the baby life-preserver for the boat! SO FUNNY!

Here's me after my 1st day of grand water-weenie fun. I'd figured out how to steer it and stay on, etc. It was VERY enjoyable, even with Lance on the back bucking the weenie --and later his mom Debbie on the back bucking just as hard! Donny's goal was to make the most spectacular splash with bodies as he tried to throw us. Yeesh!

M'man.

Cute Mia-babes!

Ok, so the next day, I went with Ella and Lance stayed home with the two youngest! It was good fun for Ella -she hit the weenie again, even though her first ride from the previous day ended in a pretty scary buck into the water. ...We had a chit-chat about bravery and how life is all about "getting back on", heh heh!

Ella is actually between Scott and Candace (Aneesa, my niece in front) here for the ride! Later on I got beat up pretty bad:

Scotty and I were on the water-weenie, and I was in the back. I'm NO good if I can't see where I'm going and lean to steer it! I was a fraction of time behind what he was trying to do, and when we hit a nasty wake (at around 35 mph), I knew we'd go down, not because of what I saw (Scotty's BACK), but because of the balance. It was really quite terrifying! {Even now, I can feel exactly how I felt when I knew I'd be thrown -and it gives me chills} I was thrown like a rag doll and hit and skidded on the water in an unnaturally ungraceful manner!!! Later, Scott was water skiing, and I was filming it with Donny's camera. He'd just let go into the water, and I told Donny -who must have cut the engine (or slowed down SUPER FAST somehow) and turned sharply... It threw me in the boat and I hit the side of my head on the dash pretty hard. I had an instant headache and rode into shore still sitting on the floor of the boat working through it, and repeatedly answering three little voices (Aneesa, Chaston, and Ella): "are you okay???"

Yeah, a little more scared of the boat/ weenie than I was earlier. Go easy on me, Donny!

I love this time of year. I love that we get to gather with people who are important to us, and celebrate living in the most amazing country in the world.

My bff Erin's boyfriend is in the service and just shipped out. Bless his heart, I am so grateful that there are people like him, willing to fight for what we hold so precious --and in turn, people like Erin, who stand by them. God bless America and those who made it so incredible.