Fourth of July

This first picture is unrelated to the holiday for which this post is named. I took it on July 2 only because I enjoyed how the biggers moved their chairs over to Tiny's side of the table, so they were all crammed together on the end.

The Karners hosted a BBQ/movie/fireworks party on July 3. The Rancho del Oro fireworks show is on the third every year, which is nice because we don't have school or work the next day. The Karners have a good view of the fireworks from their backyard. After dinner, Eric Perkins showed a kids' movie (can't remember which) and then The Princess Bride on the big screen outside. We paused the movie during the fireworks show.

About 10 or 15 minutes into The Princess Bride, I asked Ever if she was liking it. She said something like, "I don't have any idea what's going on," and she wanted me to explain it to her. Nonetheless, she was really liking it. In the end, a ton of it must have been over her and Wren's heads, but they were obsessed.  They talked about it constantly for days. In fact, Wrenzy chose to rewatch it on her next movie night, and I took this video on August 25, when she was chatting up a storm during lunch about a man in a red shirt and "Wes-tle-ley," etc.

Back to the Karners' party... Tiny watched some of the first two movies. Otherwise she just piddled around, entertaining herself. She was so good, as were the others, that we just stayed and stayed. Somewhere around 11:00 or 11:30 P.M., I was outside chatting with some people, and Amy Thompson caught a glimpse of Tiny wandering around. She said, "Are Whitney's kids still here?!" I'm pretty sure I'm notorious for not going to things because my kids have to be in bed. Amy and Tyson host an annual New Year's Eve party, and we've begged out in the past to put the kids to bed. Life is getting easier now that the kids are getting older.

After the outside movies ended, Tiny came in and planted herself right in front of the TV for some more viewing. This may have been after I moved her away from the TV:

So much screen time. Meanwhile Jim played ping pong with Alyssa and Bryan Hawkins and Tom Sorenson, so everyone had fun.

On the fourth, Leela's family hosted a pool party. 

Tiny wanted to jump in but wasn't quite brave enough. Jim helped her out.

Maggie Long (new friend in the ward) texted a few days before the holiday and said she was thinking of hosting a BBQ/fireworks-viewing party at their place on base the evening of the fourth, and she wondered if we'd be up for that. I answered in the affirmative probably 15 or 20 minutes after she texted. Then she texted back and said she'd texted another girl in the ward, Alexis Peacock, at the same time she texted me and found out that Alexis was thinking of hosting the same thing at her house. So, Maggie said, Alexis said we were welcome to go to her place. Alexis tried to make it a legit invitation by texting me directly, but it was still super weird; we don't know Alexis and her husband, Brandt, very well and were pity, tag-along invitees only because Maggie had thrown an invitation out to me before her plans were totally pinned down. Jim and I desperately wanted not to go but didn't know how to get out of it. So awkward. To make matters worse, Alexis texted before we left to say that the guards weren't letting people on base, so she would have to meet us someplace off base and escort us on. At that point, I tried to get out of it. I said that that was too much of a pain for them, and it was totally fine; we would just stay home and get our exhausted kids to bed at a decent hour and get together with them another time. She insisted, however, so we went. She'd made tons of food, and everyone was nice. We walked to the park near their house for a great view of the fireworks. Jim cranked his little emergency radio so we had some static-plagued patriotic tunes playing during the show. It was pretty funny. Also funny was Tiny, who kept saying, in the weirdest voice, that every firework was "another favorite one." This is just audio:

All in all, it was a festive and friend-filled holiday.