I hope everyone had a good 4th of July and was able to continue the fun over the weekend! After all the festivities on Thursday, Oz and I went home, packed up and hopped on a plane to Pullman for orientation at WSU. Needless to say the last week has been non-stop, full of feels and a bit of a blur, but also loads of fun. Happy to be home in our own beds with the rest of the crew and thought I’d flip through and share pics from 4th!
We kicked things off Thursday morning with the fishing derby and I’m proud to report that after years of wanting to decorate the boat beforehand I finally got my stuff together and brought balloons (lol) and some paper buntings. Neither of which was all that noticeable or impressive, but I think added a nice touch!
After fishing, we spent the rest of the day filling up on yard games, yummy food, watching all the kids swim and spending time with friends and family. Even though the weather wasn’t all that warm I love so much that we were able to spend the entire day (15 hours!) outside. Thankful for kids that are willing to swim without the sunshine… wish I was still that tough and cool!
A summer version of the snow angel :)
(Johan and our friend, Collin getting ready for the blind boat race above!)
Our friends and their 5 kids joined us for the morning activities and community potluck which meant all the kids and our hubbies had a partner for the games and everyone had a blast.
Having buddies is the best and it’s always so cute listening to the conversations.
(The mamas! Kendra has a blog you should definitely follow!)
I participated in the three-legged race with Johan per usual (my fave!) and the rest of the time cheered everyone on, snapped pics and did damage control (i.e. wiped egg from the egg toss off of Griffin’s face and hair, lol).
After all that work it was time for cotton candy! Every year after this BBQ potluck, I’m tempted to purchase a cotton candy machine for all the summer birthdays and parties. If you have any experience (good or bad) let me know!
That group pic hustle, below. Always seems kinda impossible to wrangle everyone without making a scene, but is also always worth it and usually produces some pretty funny outtakes if nothing else. Love all these kids so much!
After the community event I put the camera away so I could be a more attentive hostess while we continued the party at my parents house and welcomed more of our friends and their babes over.
It’s always kinda nice to not be distracted by picture duty but then it bums me out not to have pics from the whole day. How do you guys balance documenting memories while also being a participant in those memories?
Being more intentional about group pics (vs. all the in-between shots) might be a good way to do it but it also helps that Johan doesn’t mind taking turns with the camera too… tag-teaming anything when you’re raising a family is always a good approach I think!
xo, Rae
Looked like a great day. I love the log house in the background on some of the shots.
Hi Deborah! Yeah, it’s a fun little community lodge… it’s also where my husband and I got married! xo
I’m thinking way ahead on this! Do you know where you got the red, white and blue decorations in the rowboat from? These pictures are so adorable!