4th of July

The night before the 4th, Austin found a recipe for "Yankee Doodle Popcorn Cake" in one of our kids cookbooks. He and I got to work in the kitchen making this festive treat.

We popped about 20 cups of popcorn, then covered it with sugar, corn syrup, and marshmallow creme. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmm tasty!



Here's the finished product, complete with red and blue M&Ms.



The next day we all went swimming at the pool. I love celebrating the 4th like that- out in the sun, kids running around in swim suits, etc. Unfortunately, two kids decided to poop in the pool- one hour apart!! We walked around the park for a while, waiting for the pool to be cleaned.



I'm used to Utah County where they are ballistic about kids 3 and under- you have to double diaper them (put a plastic one over the swim diaper) so there are never any logs floating around the pool, thank goodness. Apparently SLC hasn't gotten the memo. Ugh.



Love these cute cousins!



This was base camp- where most of the adults relaxed and read, avoiding the pool! Adam was reading "Fall of Rome", I was reading "A Suitable Boy", Jill was reading "Here Be Dragons" and Amy was reading "Angle of Repose". Lori had a Real Simple magazine. Can you tell our family loves to read?!



After the 2nd "incident" we gave up and decided to go back to Adam and Amy's rather than wait out another cleaning. We had hot dogs, hamburgers, salad, dips, chips, fruit, etc. It was delicious.



Since Jill's birthday is on the 9th, we decided to celebrate while we were together. Lori made a magnificent yellow cake with homemade chocolate frosting (to die for) topped with patriotic blueberries and strawberries.



Then we opened presents for Jill. She got a number of gift cards, and a mystery present from Mom and Pop. It appeared to be some Big Buddy generator/heater... which, if you know my mom, would not surprise you b/c she is known to give us emergency-type gifts for Christmas and such. Jill didn't even open the box. But Mom kept insisting so the message got across that this wasn't actually a heater but...(drum roll) a Kitchen Aid mixer. I hope Jill wasn't disappointed that she didn't get a heater!



The next photo I took as I was laughing hysterically- this is Lori trying to explain to Jill why she had no present for her! It was amusing...


Then it got dark and the fun began. The kids LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the glow bands. I don't think they even noticed the fireworks!






We sat on the side of Adam and Amy's yard, overlooking all of Salt Lake city and got to see the fireworks at the U, Sugarhouse, Holladay, Murray, West Valley, and everything in between. Great view.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!