Swimming

We went swimming at Gage Park this past Friday. Jeff got off work early so he could go with us, since swimming at a public pool with five kids is not something I'm willing to verture alone. We all had a lot of fun. Even Carter seemed to enjoy the water. The coolest thing was Taylor decided to try jumping off the diving board, and he did it. After the first time, he did it again and again and again, etc. He ended up jumping off the high dive, and then off the high platform. I then had to jump off the platform too, since I couldn't let my nine-year-old son do something I'd never done. I only did it once, and it was a little too high for me. I must be getting old. Anyway, I was really proud of him.

Belated 4th of July

Well here are a couple of 4th of July pictures. I finally got my camera back and got the pictures off of it. When I did, I realized I didn't take very many pictures. Oh well. The 4th was a lot of fun. We went to two neighborhood parades. See, in Topeka they don't have a big 4th of July parade. They have a big parade for St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, and The Mexican Fiesta days, but not the 4th - go figure. Anyway, Jeff started the day by taking the three oldest kids on a hike and to breakfast. He then got home just in time for us to make it to the only neighborhood parade we'd heard about this year. We got there about ten minutes before it started, parked half-a-block from the parade route, and got a seat right in front. (we were some of the only people watching the parade. Everyone else was in it.) That's our kind of parade. Being at the beginning of the parade was great because everyone was anxious to throw out candy. That's one thing they do well at the Topeka parades. Our kids scored on the treats, as well as a balloon, a bag to hold their candy, chips, and necklaces. The parade lasted all of ten minutes and we were done. We then over heard someone talking about another parade close by, so we headed over there to check it out. The second parade was bigger than the first and many of the people in it were the same. Jeff even decided to join the fun by walking the parade route with Taylor, Emily, and Parker. It was fun to watch them. At night we went to a friend's house for dinner, swimming, and fireworks. It was a fun day!

Random pictures.

Since I can't post 4th of July pictures yet, I am posting some cute random pictures. I just love seeing pictures on other people's blogs, and have a hard time posting without pictures.

Thankful for electrical appliances

Well, I was going to get on here and share some pictures of our 4th of July fun, but when I went to get the pictures off the camera I realized we'd left it on the ground where we watched fireworks. Luckily it was at our friend's house, and she found it for us. Those pictures will be coming later. We did have a really fun day, ending with a million fireworks. Kansas is crazy on the 4th! It seems like everyone is determined to do their own fireworks show, and there are people who literally spend thousands at the fireworks tents. I say "tents" because it seems like there is one on every corner here for the week before the 4th. The kids love to seem them too, because each tent has it's own huge blow up creature in front of it to attract customers. I wish I would have taken some pictures. We saw a giant gorilla, a bald eagle, godzilla, and a gigantic firework (that was the least popular with my kids). Anyway, we had a lot of fun.

Besides talking about our lost camera and the Kansas fireworks, I just wanted to say I am thankful for electrical appliances. I'm not sure why I was thinking about how great electricity is, and how thankful I am for Thomas Edison, but it hit me while I was feeding the baby after church. I just kept thinking how greatful I was that the rice cooker was cooking our rice, the oven was cooking our muffins, the crock pot was cooking the dinner, and it was all going to be done about the same time I was going to be done feed ing Carter. The pioneers didn't have that luxury. We really are pretty lucky. Anyway, that it just my random thought for the day. I hopefully will have more exciting things to share (like pictures) when I get my camera back.