Annual Fourth of July Extravaganza Jubilee Celebration!

This year's Extravaganza, unlike last year's dry spell, was threatened by persistent rain. It just has not been in the cards for a great fireworks show in years of late! We kept the party on though because we're party people and rain or shine, the show must go on! 

Here is our yearly Sistas from another Mista shot:

And Elaina and I in our Fourth of July best. Mine is vintage dating all the way back to 2011:)

There was a break in the rain so Bobby set out for his usual street fireworks. 

The loud popping had most of the little people covering their ears....

or hiding.

I love looking back through my pictures and seeing the kids' faces!

Garrison was thoroughly impressed:)

But these jokers don't appear to be enjoying themselves at all. Grant looks like a sad kid and Callan looks.....I don't know....inquisitive. I think I caught them in a down moment. I don't think a kid has ever left the Extravaganza saying, "Well, I'd rather watch paint dry than do that again...". 

This year the pool added a new level of entertainment for the kids. It also adds a level of anxiety for me....not only do I need to make sure no one loses a limb from fireworks, or runs in the street, but now I have to be hypervigilant and make sure no one drowns!

I think these guys must be watching parachute guys or something since it's still a little light in the picture. Who knows. Maybe there was a flying saucer or something.

 We took a peek at the radar and it seemed that the Lord was shining His face upon Bobby's fireworks show. So, out came the table full of explosives he had been collecting for over 2 years! 

 It proved to be a great show this year despite the less than stellar weather! 

 Meanwhile, inside some of us gals were doing our darndest to get a good handstand picture. This turned out to be the best one. I am bound and determined to be able to hold a handstand for more than 1 second!! Practice makes perfect......or at least a little better:)

Annual gals pic. Please note that we'd been standing in drizzling rain the entire day. None of us were at our best. 

 The fireworks were grand and once again I'm so thankful for the freedom that we celebrate this time of year.

 I'm also thankful for a slew of great friends to celebrate with. God has blessed us abundantly! 

Revolution Baseball

Cade made the All-Star team again this year and it made for quite the busy springtime having all three of the kids playing on all-star teams. We managed it though! 

The Revolution was a great group of kids. We had a rough season but it's hard to throw a group together with only a few weeks of practice and put them up against travel teams that have played together for years. Overall we did pretty well. 

Cade hit well this season but not up to the potential I know he has. He has a monster bat in there just waiting to come out!! I've seen it in the back yard!

 He was also one of the teams starting pitchers which makes me so incredibly nervous for him. I can remember feeling the same way when his dad was pitching in high school! Cade really came along this season though and I was VERY proud of several of his pitching outings. 

 Bobby offered some condolences after Cade had his first home run hit off of him. Bobby had been there, done that and knew he had to pump Cade up so he could get back out there and pitch well for his team. He sucked it up and ended up pitching an incredible rest of the game.

Serious face base running.

 I love to see Bobby working with all the boys on their baseball skills. He's such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to that. And, even though the boys get frustrated at him at times, there is a noticeable difference in the way the perform when he's not there.....especially Cade. He loves his dad's encouragement when he's on the field. 

Another season down, and I'm pretty sure MANY, many more to come:)

Summertime Cuteness

Just makin' good use of our new back yard:)

Eighteen Holes

After hiking to the golf course the other day, Bobby was sad that he had not signed up to golf. Our flight wasn't leaving until later in the afternoon so, after contemplating it over a very mature looking breakfast with the morning paper, I encouraged him to make a tee time and get in 18 holes with me as his caddy. 

It didn't take much convincing! I know he was glad that he decided to get out there and golf. When else will the opportunity arise to golf such an outstanding course? Who knows. 

There was no place I'd rather have been that day than sitting in the golf cart watching my man play golf.  I love the special time we get to spend together and I love one on one time with him away from our busy schedules. 

Hawaii has been a great refresher. Now it's time to head home!

Just Another Day in Lanai

We rented paddle boards and boarded in the little cove close to the hotel. That's a great workout! We have no pictures of the actual paddle boarding because we were both in the water. And, for the record, if we did have some sort of camera I would not have wanted Bobby to have it. 

Why? Because he fell off of his board no less than 25 times (to my, say, 3). Finally! Some sort of physical activity that I was better at than him! 

  This cove behind us is a dolphin sanctuary where dolphin come to rest and feed their young away from danger. That made for some awesome paddle boarding. I just sat down on my board and watched them swim not 5 yards from me.  

I found this heart shaped rock after we finished paddle boarding. Awwww.....such love abounds:)

Bobby and I just sat at the beach almost until the sun went down. Then it was time to stroll up to the hotel and get ready to eat. That was pretty much our days....sleep, sit by the ocean, eat, and then sleep. Wonderful! 

There was a luau the last night on the hotel grounds. We were given leis again and I received a little charm of a hula dancer.

Then we capped off the night watching real hula dancers! It was kind of cheese ball but still, when you're in Hawaii you should at least see some hula dancing, right??

After this we decided that Hawaii was fantastic but we missed our little people. It was time to head back to the crazy grind. Turns out, we actually like the crazy grind:)

Crusin' a Catamaran

We took a catamaran snorkeling ride one afternoon. With the wind blowing from the catamaran it was a little chilly for my taste! 

There were some pretty sights though....imagine that!

I saw more dolphin than I've ever seen in my entire life. They were everywhere! 

We did some snorkeling and the water was not warm and cozy like I had imagined. I saw a few pretty fish but was actually disappointed in our snorkling area. I thought I caught a glimpse of a sea turtle so I swam like mad trying to catch up with that thing. Do you have any idea how hard it is to catch a sea turtle? Im.possible. Then I started having flashbacks of that awful movie Open Water and decided I better keep my eyes above the surface so I didn't get left behind. Don't think I didn't ask our boat captain if he'd seen the movie and what plans he had to keep there from being a sequel (or a trio, because unfortunately I think there's already a sequel). 

So, the bad news was that I didn't see many fish. But the good news is that I didn't get left behind and eaten by a shark. Neither did Bobby. Win.