Saturday Jon and I finally got some pictures hung up on our walls! Yay! I know this doesn't sound like much fun (and Jon would agree with you) but I am so happy they are finally up! It really makes the house feel more homey. :) That afternoon we went and tried out the Bettendorf Pool, Splash Landing. It was a nice pool. The kids had fun going down the kiddie slides and playing in the 0 foot entry but they were all a bit bummed that they couldn't go down the big slides. They were all too short and life jackets aren't allowed down the slides. I need to get the kiddos swimming better! There was also a rule that you can't take any pictures there for some reason, so no pics of our swim day.
Sunday after church and naps, we quick loaded up the car and headed to Scott County Park to go camping. We thought the sites would all be full because of the holiday so we weren't expecting to stay but they had quite a few openings! We found a nice campsite and pitched the tent! This was really our first family camping in like 3 years. The kids all loved it though! Katie and Colton love gathering sticks to throw in the fire and Zach just loves being outside. (Also running around creating havoc ;) We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and made s'mores- even though the kids preferred to eat their cookies and marshmallows separate. None of us got much sleep that night but it was fun anyway.
Monday morning was pretty much a recovery period from the lack of sleep! I did get to run out and do a little shopping after we got home and cleaned up and then the family all headed to the YMCA for a Members Appreciation picnic. If I'm honest, this was not very fun. It was just hotdogs and chips in the hot hot sun and they had run out of drinks and there was no shade. Needless to say, we stayed about 10 minutes. That evening we just took it easy and watched a movie together and put the kids to bed early to recover from the night before.
Tuesday (Independence Day) we drove over to Bettendorf for their parade. It was a little stressful figuring out where to go and navigating the traffic and crowds but we ended up finding a pretty good spot. Jon even brought our beach tent and set it up in the road. I maintain that it was ridiculous but it was nice to have a little shade and tons of people kept commenting on how brilliant it was. Needless to say, Jon's head grew about three sizes that day. Haha. The kids loved the parade, mostly the candy and the marching bands, but really liked all the firetrucks and police cars too. For dinner we did our new tradition we have started for birthdays and some holidays where we order chicken wings and then create a big feast of fruit, appetizers, and wings. It's super yummy :) After dinner, we filled up our kiddie pool and let the kids play in the water. After the water we did some sparklers and made sure to put shoes on all the kids this year! We had heard about some pretty good fireworks in our neighborhood on the Fourth, so instead of dragging the family out to one of the city celebrations, we just put zach in bed and let the other two stay up with us to watch some neighborhood fireworks from our backyard. It worked out pretty well! We all had a good time and a fun weekend and are only a little sleep deprived today. :)
