Independence! (And Yes, I Realize I Used an Exclamation Point in My Last Title Too!)

Example of Independence #1:

Elise portrayed "The Son of Liberty" in the 5th Grade Play. And yes, many girls played boys--we're depicting early American history after all, and our recollection of notable women is in short supply. Although--aside--I just finished reading Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates AND Forrest and I have been watching the John Adams miniseries and I think both Ann Hutchinson and Abigail Adams are pretty fascinating members of the fairer sex, and neither of them made an appearance in Monte Vista Elementary's production of The American Dream. Sojourner Truth did, though. Love that "Aint I a Woman?" speech.

Here's Elise in all her Pilgrimy glory:

(We decided that even though her shoes from Justice had sparkles on the toes, most audience members wouldn't notice. The buckles seemed kinda pilgrimy to me--pilgrimy with pizzaz!)

And here she is singing away. And being tall.



After the 5th grade play and a hot hot HOT field day (where photos were not taken because I was too covered in Otter Pop juice and focused on wrangling 10 rotations of 25 6 to 8 year olds into even groups on either side of the tug of war rope to take pictures) . . . school ended!

So Example of Independence #2? No more classrooms, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks! (Such a mean rhyme.)

Jonas holding his excellent report card aloft. I also took a picture of Elise with her report card . . . but her friend Hailey signed Elise's FOREHEAD as a passionate gesture of goodbye and it just looks too silly to post on the internet. Sorry. I'm controlling that way. Needless to say, Elise had a great report card too. Onward and upward to 3rd and 6th grades!

And now the obvious example of Independence, July 4th:

Andrew and Andrea and their family arrived from North Carolina just in time to join in the festivities. Okay, quick rewind: They got here on July 3rd and we went to the temple open house and Boondocks to celebrate Brandon's 8th birthday. Forrest couldn't come to the temple open house because he was helping a family in the ward move (and lest you think he's too noble, he also golfed in the morning, so half the time he was golfing, half moving--so the noblesse evens out). Wyatt was in even rarer form than the first time we went to the open house. The major differences this time was the absence of dad and the vast throngs of people who had the day off on Friday the 3rd and decided to visit the open house just like we did and stand packed together on the stairs in a manner which the Fire Marshall would most certainly disapprove. Wyatt was--shall we say--feeling a little "hemmed in"? He desperately wanted to get in the baptismal font, yelling "I go swimming!" at the top of his lungs. But my favorite stunt was when he wiggled out of my arms and darted underneath the velvet rope in the celestial room and went and sat in one of the chairs. Ahhh, parenting toddlers. Especially parenting toddlers while hundreds of people look on. Keeps a girl humble.

And Boondocks was really fun. Go carts, video games, all that good stuff. But I didn't bring the camera to either. You'll have to check out Andi's blog for that!

So. Anyway. The 4th of July.

Brandon's baptism was a great way to start the morning. So nice of his parents to travel thousands of miles so we could all be a part of it! Then afterward we descended on Grandma and Grandpa's house, had some good food, then turned the kids loose in the backyard. Just because they're cute, here's a picture of each of the cousins enjoying the slip n slide:

Eli making a run for it

Wyatt, who had a hard time understanding he was supposed to wait in line--but the kids were patient with him. That's the advantage of being one of the younger cousins.

Elise, rock star slip n slider with dangly silver earrings, purple cast, and wind machine hair.

How cute is this picture of Whitney?

Ethan: Attacking the slide.

Brandon, master of Slip n Slide form.

Jane, with a classic Slip n Slide expression.

Cute Lauren.

Jonas, riding the slide to the very end.

Reagan, expert knee slider!

And darling Emma, who chose to abstain from slip and sliding (at least while I was outside with the camera!).

This picture is just pure cute. Almost makes up for the temple open house(s).

Mmmm . . . ice cream and a porch swing

More cute ice cream pictures

And a gaggle of gangly cousins.

That night everybody came over to our place and we did fireworks. Some cool pics:
Cool nighttime setting on the camera, isn't it?

You can see the taillights of a car passing by. Sorry, traffic!

The ghost of Forrest, fireworks-lighter-extraordinaire

Vivi and Caroline, enjoying the action from their box seat.

And Wyatt with Grandpa. NOT too happy about the explosions, the loud noises, the "fire." ("I no like that fire Mom!" he kept telling me. It's got to be so confusing to be two, wondering why in the world we've all decided to congregate on the front lawn after his bed time and watch things explode.)

It was a great night, no Follow My Leader style accidents (did anybody else read that book in elementary school?) and so fun to have family in town. And now it's hot, hot, hot, and summer is officially here: otter pops, swimming suits left (wet) on the floor, sleeping in, boat trips. Looking forward to it.