Holiday Fishing

Brett and the older kids took the Potter boys and Matt out for a little holiday fishing this morning! Everyone got a chance to catch a fish but they didn't bring anything home. Well- they brought home a few sunburns and some memories

"<-------------------------------this big------------------------------->".

That counts for something, right?

4th of July Partay on the 5th

The Partay NEVER stops at the Seamons house. LOL!  We decided to throw a BIG 4th of July on the 5th Partay! It was a lot of fun! At least we thought so :) I LOVE dinners where everyone brings something and you end up eating like Royalty. Everything was amazing and so delicious! Brett & I had our favorite, of course! Alexa made a flag cake! SO AWESOME!!!! (She even teased me that she asked her Mom if she thought it would make it on the blog! Oh YEAH!!! Look how awesome this thing is!! Way to go lady!) We had hamburger, hot dogs, all the fixings, fruit, veggies, chips & salsa, and all kinds of desserts. I LOVE food! YUMMMMY!

We're so lucky to have such great friends here in Fargo. Our Partay Guests for today included our neighbor- Andrew; the Hoffmans; the Larsens; the Ironroads; the Mausolfs & Jen's Dad; Rob Neuteboom (Jen's in Utah this week); the Parkers; the Potters; the Ransoms & their friend; the Roberts; the Tuckers, and the Seamons (hey we count! LOL!). Thanks everybody for coming! We just luv you!

Today was a Par-Tay to remember, for sure- at least for anyone that was in a swimsuit! The Potters let us borrow their blowup waterslide. It was such a blast! {Thanks guys! You're the greatest! You are always welcome to our grass anytime you'd like to use it! ;)}

We also had LOTS of other Waterfun! We had waterguns, a kiddie pool, the big pool/hot tub, the water table, the tramp, and the zipline. I LOVE that the weather has been good enough to enjoy some water! Yeah for Summer 2010!

After a little cleanup, a group of us headed for the Fairgrounds. Brett decided to bring over the GoKart for anyone who'd like to ride/drive it. We still get teased about calling it a "Go-Kart" but we bought it at Go-Kart USA so that's what it will always be to us! LOL! It's always fun to see grown men instantly become kids again. Another of Brett's toys that turned out perfect!

After a change of locations (gotta love fairground managers! ;) we had an awesome 2 hour firework show brought to you by the Larsen/Seamons Men! I wasn't sure they were ever gonna end! LOL! AND I think we still came home with stuff. Gotta love their enthusiasm, right? OR be very scared of their pyro-ism! Either way, it was very patriotic!

Lucky for us (Overstatement of the Year), our Firework Viewing Area must have been a mosquito nest because I'm sure we all left with hundreds of bites. OUCH!! We tried to smoke them out and probably just bought the makers of OFF Spray a new car but nothing worked for long! The kids had a blast though! They tailgated, took turns lighting off fireworks, swung sparkers near each others heads, tried to light the grass on fire, let off smoke bombs and ran around crazy until 11:00 PM. That's any kid's idea of an awesome 4th, right? It was a very long weekend, with lots of late nights. But you gotta love it! Thanks to all our friends who stuck it out to watch with us! I have Calamine Lotion people can borrow! LOL!

Happy 4th on the 5th Everybody!

and

Happy Birthday America!

Celebrating the 4th in Minnesota

We headed to Minnesota to celebrate the 4th tonight. MSUM is the ONLY place in the Fargo/Moorhead area that celebrates with fireworks. Well, with anything actually! That's so crazy!!!! Especially because where I come from there were fairs, parades & a firework show at almost every park in the valley.  (I think that they do big stuff at the "Lakes" here BUT I guess they don't think us non-lake people need anything to do. What thoughtfulness! LOL!)

We hadn't even made plans to go until the Ericksons said they were going and asked if we'd like to go. Hey- why not? Afterall, it IS our Holiday! ;)

Our family (Brett, me, Liberty, Jutsice, Victoria, Glory, Matt & Haylie :) all met up with the Ericksons for some line-standing, bouncy, visiting, cookie-eating, glow-stick frisbee, firework fun!

They had free Bouncy Blowup Toys for the kids. More line standing for the Seamons family. Oh joy!!! They did get to go on about 3 or 4 a piece so they were happy! We ran into the Britts from our ward and the kids got to jump with Hannah. She's so darling! We also got to visit with the Langers. She was Justice's kindergarten teacher. Such a darling family!  The little girls did the Mickey Mouse house. Glory was in heaven. Victoria was way brave and did the Double Trouble with the older two. Justice & Liberty did the Bungee Cord one. It was so funny! Then they all jumped with Hannah on the last one. Lots of fun!!!

After a LONG wait at the PortaPotty line (Again-yeah for us!), we settled in to wait for the show. Brett had made his yummy cookies earlier today and Justice brought some to share. I also brought glow bracelets for the kids. They turned them into frisbee circles and had a blast tossing them to each other. With the rain last night, the mosquitos TOTALLY enjoyed their 4th with a massive feeding opportunity. Gotta LOVE North Dakota's wildlife! Right around 10 o'clock, people started coming by the hundreds. It was crazy! But worth it!! The show was great! Victoria took her normal place on Haylie's lap. Glory ended up being scared of the noise so she covered her eyes. That's helpful!!! LOL! Our family are OOOO and AHHHH-ers which always add to the fun of the fireworks, I think! Baby Logan loved them and Landon joined our blanket half way through to lay with us. Too cute!! Lots of fun! We just LOVE the 4th!

Just in case, you missed them or were straining to see them out your bedroom window, I documented them for you! LOL! They are so beautiful! Enjoy!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

We partayed at the cars until almost midnight. LOL! Oh---- I mean we never got out of our parking space until almost midnight but hey- it's all perspective, right? We had a great time! Thanks to the Ironroads and the Ericksons for celebrating our freedom (and Fam Holiday) with us! Luv ya!

Happy 4th of July!

We are so blessed to enjoy the freedom of this country! Thank you to all who help make it that way! We can never be thankful enough. God Bless America!

Happy 4th of July!!

Dutch Oven: Take Two

We Love to Dutch Oven!!! The food is so yummy, you get to hang out & cook with friends and the MEN do most of the cooking! I LOVE it! We plan on doing several this Summer so we hosted the Dutch Oven: Take Two 2010. As always, yummy!!! This time Mother Nature saved her traditional dutch oven rain for after the partay (I mean like RIGHT after the Partay!;) but she sure turned up the heat for us. Hottest day of the year! Thanks a lot! FOUR fans outside and 7 pitchers of Lemonade coming right at ya and you still felt like you might die. Gotta love that Mother Nature is always our party crasher!

We had a really good turnout. We are always looking for new recruits to Dutch Oven with us! Anyone up for the challange is always welcome. Once you do the dutch oven cookin' with us (I mean- buy one and actually cook in it. LOL)- you're in! This time, Matt thought he'd bring a salad-- WHAT???? We, of course, had to tease him. HELLO!! That's like eating a hamburger at a Fish Fry. Was' up with that?  He ended up doing fried chicken and at least served it in his dutch oven. LOL! It was a huge hit and delicious! This time, we gave up our fall-back recipe and tried Pot Roast and veggies. The Potters did Dutch Oven Potatoes. The Zs did Chicken Enchilada Casserole and Funeral Potatoes. The Eriksons made a Peach Pineapple Cobbler. (They are first timers- AWESOME! So glad you came) We also made a Sh'more {That's better than s'mores} cake. All of it was delish!!! Thanks everybody for coming!

Luckily, we planned somewhat for the heat. There was lots of water fun for the kids. Sprinkler under the tramp, hoolahoops and water guns! Hurray!!!

Then, never forget the Zipline! Everyone LOVES the Zipline! Maybe when we grow up we'll have one for the adults as well. :) Dang! that my camera wasn't fast enough cuz I just LOVE the ones of Dawson and Sam. Too funny! The dare-devil games they come up with crack me up! Gotta LOVE boys! I also think Maggie went on it at least 100 times. Your toy is definitely a hit, Brett. Danger Ranger but a hit nonetheless.

We also brought out the Tepee AND the Indian & Cowboy box. It was used way more than I thought it would be. My favorites were Liberty is the chaps over her swimsuit especially the view from the back LOL! and squeezing (literally) Sam into the Indian costume that was like 2 sizes too small. So fun! I'm so glad it got some use since my kids grew up way too fast. It took forever to make all that stuff and it hasn't got it's fair share of use. All the kids were creative and played with it all night.

Some also took adavntage of Brett's Hamaca. (Hammock in Spanish) Brett loves it when I'm wrong about his toys. [Well, at least my "whatever" (insert eye-roll here) attitude when he buys them until everyone loves them. Well... I was wrong again, Honey! Everyone LOVES your hamaca. You're the MAN!!!

Because the 4th falls on Sunday this year, the ENTIRE weekend is turning into one continous Americana Celebration! And what's the 4th without Fireworks? We have quite a few Pyros & Pyros-in-Training on our hands. LOL! Ryan (one of the Pyros), McKenzie and Sophie joined us for fireworks after their date. [Their family is joining our Babysitting Group and so their girls joined us at the beginning and they came at the end] Most everyone loved the FIRE and noise! We did  scared of the Zs and Dawson off but everyone else seemed to enjoy them.

We also had the priviledge of a special Musical Performance slash Dance Extravaganza. It was AMAZING!!! Nothing like turning up the car speakers and jammin' in the driveway. What great memories!

Hurray for the Dutch Oven Partay and great friends! Let's do it again soon!

TOTAL-ly Eclipse

Girls Night in Forks (oh I mean Fargo) are so fun! Especially when you get to act like teenage girls in love with Werewolfs and Vampires. LOL! Some of our Twilight die-hards are out of town but we still had a great turnout!

Haylie & I came all decked out in our Team Jacob attire! Yeah for us! Go Jacob!

First, we all met at Olive Garden for dinner! YUMMY! We always feel a little bad because we are ONE- a huge group of loud laughing ladies and TWO- we are always on a time crunch schedule. The waitress definitely earns her tip the night the Mormons come to eat. Our new friend, Amanda only joined us for dinner but we'll convert her to the whole Girl's Night Out soon. LOL! Thanks for joining us for dinner, lady!

Then, we headed to THE Movie. It was SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!! I even WHOOHOOed at the beginning in honor of Brooke. (We missed you & the Kristens!) Unfortunately, the theater was pretty packed and remember the time crunch I talked about earlier-- we run on SMT (Standard Mormon Time) so we had to sit in small groups around the theater. It would have been FUNer to sit all together but you take what you can get, right? Jen M. sat between Haylie and me so there was a lot of eye-rolling going on (Jen- not us!). LOL! She's WAY Team Edward but after this movie she thinks that maybe she's ready to switch teams. Not to OUR team buuttt...... Is there a Team Jasper??? LOL!

Now that I've watched the movie, I officially can start reading the book. Hurray for me! Unfortunately, my house is a mess and we are having guests over this weekend so I will have to leave it on the shelf until next week. (I have way too much to do to live in Forks for the whole day! :)

This time, most of the girls were up for the Partay to continue so we headed to Perkins for dessert. Also-Yummy! We had the Adult Conversation group and the Protect-the-Minor Conversation group. Oops! Sorry Courtney. LOL! We sure love ya though!!!! It's always fun to see what kind of topics come up when we're together. You learn a lot about ladies at a Girls Night Out! LOL! We stayed until almost midnight. Crazy how time flies when you're having fun! :)

Thanks ladies!

I love being with you!

Let's do it AGAIN!!!

(Really- when Brooke gets back- we should do it again! ;)

Native American Art Class

Liberty LOVES art!!! This summer, a lady named Chris Boyle offered a free 2 week Native American Art Class. It was from 8:15 to 11:15 on Monday through Thursday both weeks. They would learn about a Native American Tribe and then do an art projects that depicted that tribe. They did tons of things!

Liberty's friend, Jozie signed up as well so that made the deal even sweeter. Liberty learned a lot and has quite the talent for art- she made some awesome things! Way to go girl!