Let Freedom Ring

  We had a great 4th of July filled with parades, family, enjoying nature and fireworks!  We hit the ground running by meeting Heather and Jane at the parade!  The girls were very proud to be sporting their tie dye shirts!

Sporting their tie dye shirts

We sure love Grandma Jane

 Hiking the Peak
   Larin and Jessica let us crash them for their hike to the Peak!  It was a lot harder/longer than we had anticipated but it was so worth it!  It was beautiful and it reminded me of how much I love the Valley I grew up in!  The girls did awesome, they never complained and were troopers the whole hike!  Also can I just say over and over again how amazing Kooper, Katie and Mattie are to my girls!  They would stay back with them or give them piggie back rides when they were tired.  Again I'm so proud of all of us for sticking to it until we made it to the top and I'm very proud to say we have our names in the jar!
  FYI when recovering from a neck/back injury a strenuous 6 1/2 hour hike is not recommended! Coming down was PAINFUL to say the least, luckily Larin had some Ibuprofen to help knock the edge off.  Tuesday was a VERY rough day but what can I say, I'm a Ward and sitting on my bum watching T.V. is not realistic!

The Wards

Mattie, Makenna, Jessica, Wyatt, Larin, Katie, Morgan and Kooper

The Tarbets

Zach, Keagan, Jessi and Kabree

This 100 yard stretch was deceiving; I actually thought the whole hike would be like this! 

  This is what the hike was really like.....trudging up the mountain like Mountain Goats

 

 Wyatt and Kiki  

Kooper and Morgan

Seriously I think these two are Mountain Goats!

***Thank you Jessica for letting me steal pictures, I only got my camera out twice the whole hike and Jessica was taking pictures the whole time, she is number 1!!!***

Fireworks

  After our hike we headed back home for a quick run to A&W and then to Heathers for fireworks. We made an awesome discovery that you can see the city fireworks from Heathers front yard!  We watched them a bit from there and then let the kids light off a few fireworks themselves (smoke bombs and crackle balls).

 Cleo thought the sprinklers were a more entertaining

 Libby was pretty excited about her sword sparklers

To say I was exhausted by the end of the night would be an understatement!

  We had a great 4th filled with little bit of everything and a lot of people we love!  So grateful for where we live and the people in our lives!