Our 4th of July

Happy (belated) Independence Day! I hope you had an awesome 4th of July this week. Ellie, Jason, and I did some fun things.

In the morning, Ellie and I went to our stake 5k/flag ceremony/pancake breakfast. (Jason had to sleep since he worked the night before). We got there as they were handing out the medals for the 5k, and then joined everyone in the long line for breakfast. Ellie played in the flowers during the whole time we waited, and made some friends with the little girls right ahead of us.

When we got our breakfast and got inside to sit down, we were pleasantly surprised to find Shelley (my sister-in-law) and Emily inside. We weren't expecting to see them until later in the afternoon, and Ellie was really excited to both of them. She says "Shewwey" for Shelley and calls Emily "E," and when we saw them was just like, "Shewwey! E! Shewwey!" over and over.

I brought this stroller with us because Ellie's been obsessed with it this week. She'll sit in it at home and want us to push her around the house.

She was hiding. I couldn't see her.

Her "cheese!" face

Later in the day (about 6 o'clock) we went over to Jason's grandma's house. The roll call of people who were there: us, Jason's grandparents, Jason's parents, Shelley and Emily, Shelley's parents, Tyler and Sarah, Sarah's parents, and Sarah's brother Thomas. (Who Ellie took a real shine to. She kept saying "Thomas!" over and over, and pointing to him.)

We played in the pool, had a yummy dinner, and just had fun hanging out with everyone.

Jason and Ellie. Ellie really clung to him for the first while we were in the pool; she was having fun but was a bit nervous about the water. She eventually relaxed, though.

Shelley and Emily

Sarah!

Mimi, Jason's grandma

Sarah and Tyler

Emily practicing kicking her feet

We tried to teach her to kick her feet. She didn't really get it, but she had fun.

Ellie on her boogie board

Splashing!

Mmmm.

We brought some baby gates and made a pen for the girls to play in after getting out of the swimming pool.

Oh, and a skunk joined us:

It came into the yard to eat from a cat food bowl.

And then a second one:

They were kind of fighting over the food, but not too badly, and luckily they didn't get close to any of us.

Ellie and Emily had a very nutritious dinner composed mostly of cheese puffs.

Everybody (except for Jason, who was taking these pictures):

Shelley, me, Sarah, Tyler, and Thomas

Jason's mom and Ellie and Emily

Shelley's parents, Jason's dad, and Jason's grandpa

Sarah's parents and Jason's grandma

We went home before the fireworks because Jason had to get ready for work and we had to put Ellie to bed. (Jason's grandparent's house looks out over a large area, and you can see most of the fireworks in our part of Orange County from their backyard.) We didn't mind, though. We had a great day. :)