Happy 4th of July!!!

**Warning ... this blog post is incredibly long ... and amazingly enough, I already cut out half the pictures ... you were warned. ;) **

We had an amazing 4th of July ... it was fun & the kids were so excited to see the Bodily's and Ryan was excited to see his family ... and of course ... there were sick kids, lots of vomiting (in my van!) and I definitely need to get that sucker detailed after it all ... a perfect family vacation! LOL.
We drove up and spent Saturday at a water park that Ryan used to go to as a kid. The place is a dive ... seriously ... and that's what makes it awesome. The lifeguards (well, the one and only lifeguard on duty for the 3 pools they have) don't care if you sit in the pool & catch your kids going down the water slide ... $48 ... totally worth the pictures & fun the kids had. Savannah wasn't as interested in going down the slide this year, but Jax was addicted to it ... I went down 11 times with him, Ryan went even more than that! :) The next day we stopped in to see Ryan's Grandparents, and I got some AWESOME pictures to scrapbook of her holding Lizzie and the kids just exploring around the house. Which was followed by a visit to his other grandparents' and some land they own a bit further into Idaho. I looked at Ryan as we were pulling into both places and asked, "Did you even call anybody to say we were coming?" And both times he would be like ... oh I forgot, let me make sure it's okay to come in and visit ... lol. Shirley had set up a kiddie pool ... the kids were in hog heaven there. Then Sunday evening we played in the pool at the hotel with the Bodily's ... definitely a fun day for the kids! I stayed up until 1 am that night/next morning to make some cute little patriotic flowers for us all to wear. I was so tired it hurt, but it was DEFINITELY worth it when I saw the flowers in Lizzie's & Savannah's hair! We met up with the Bodily's again to watch the parade in Lewiston ... the kids went NUTS for the candy they kept throwing from each and every float, they were in heaven! As we went back to the car to drop off some things ... Colton threw up, and at first we thought it was just because he ate too much candy. And then he proceeded to throw up another time shortly after letting him have the cotton candy ... and yes I realize giving him cotton candy was wrong .. but look at how happy he was! That sucker was bigger than his head!!! How could I say no???By that evening, we had Hunter & Savannah throwing up in the car as well ... it seemed to be a 12 hour bug (thank goodness), but it hit hard on each kid. The kids were crying so hard they didn't even want to watch the fireworks that night ... and each fell asleep crying just wanting to go home. :( On the way back to the hotel I made sure to pick up sparklers for the kids. We'll enjoy them hopefully this weekend (Ryan still put in over 65 hours last week --in 4 days-- & about the same this week as well). Thankfully all was well by Tuesday morning when we had to drive the 8 hours home! We stopped at Temple Square to pick up some supplies from the church store and the kids were so happy to have the fun stuff to look at and a chance to stretch their legs! It was too short of a trip (they always are), but we were all so grateful to the Bodily's for letting us tag along this year and for the Bodily's parents being so kind and welcoming! Love you guys!!! :)