Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! We had great holiday with lots of sun, fun, and family. So grateful for the people who serve our country daily, as this 4th of July approached I was reminded of how awesome our country is as I tried to explain to Christian what the 4th of July was about. I hope you had great one too!


*Sometimes I forget to load my pictures the right way and I am too lazy to delete them and start over again, so you get this first photo out of order :)
The last couple of years we go to see the PG fireworks, they put on a great show and we usually watch them with my sister Miriam and her family. But this year she was invited to a bbq so we had to fend for ourselves. We realized that Jon and Melissa bought a house in PG just about a year ago, so we roped them into going with us. And boy did we get a show! A couple fireworks flew out into the audience and we were all a little worried but we stuck threw till the end and had a great time.

Jon holding Seth, Melissa with Korver, Ethan, Dan, Me, Evan, and Christian. Love these guys!


Ever since I blew up firework up in my face my family started the tradition of shooting rockets off during the day- no fire involved=less anxiety for everyone. We have a great time each year, and the weather was perfect!

Couldn't get a good picture of all of us looking at the camera, oh well!

Silly Evan Boy


My crazy brother Davy getting ready to launch a rocket


The little kids love coming to the rocket launch because they get to chase after the rockets when they are headed back to earth


Here's my Daddy getting a rocket ready to launch


Dan and Christian already starting on the many many calories we consumed that day





Evan and my sister Kaite and Mirima

Who doesn't love bugs?

Duckwitz Family Reunion

Oh if I could sum up the Duckwitz Family Reunion in two words it would be, Fun Chaos! We had a lot of people and kids and it was crazy but we had a great time together. The main purpose we went up there to get some chores done on the cabin, which we did, and of course I didn't get any pics of that, and the other was to have our whole family together which really hasn't happened for a very long time. It felt like we needed 2 Saturday's in a row, one to get all the chores done and the other to goof around. But we did get a little bit of both.

Of course what would a cabin trip be like without lots and lots of 4-wheeler rides! We did have a really big scare. Nathan was learning how to drive the 4-wheeler and rolled it! Tammy was on the back and Heidi too, Heidi had strapped herself in so she actually got stuck with the 4-wheeler on top of her. She was complaining about neck pain and wrist pain. After a trip to the ER we were lucky that she had a sprained wrist and some cuts, but that was it! But it was pretty scary for all of us.


Me and my sis-in-law Melissa, I took her out and taught her how to drive the 4-wheeler :)


There was no shortage on little boys this trip which is a nice change for us since most of our neighborhood is girls (we love them and all but some times you need some boy time). There was also plenty of dirty, rocks, bugs, and lizards to chase around. Caleb actually caught a couple.


And we did eat, and eat, and eat! It was always a big production no matter what we were having because there were so many of us.


Lots of helpers in the kitchen helped keep the Mommy Duckwitz sane.


After the many hours of playing in the dirt the little ones were beyond dirty! So we piled them into the bath tub together- It took 3 tub fulls to get all of them in and out and clean. Our they adorable.


All in all, very fun and crazy- love this family of ours.

Firework Cars Race

You know how anti-climatic it is when you spend a whole bunch of money on little fireworks just to light one or two off at at time...well we discovered that it's a lot funner to strap them onto a car and race them in the parking lot instead. Here are some pics of the festivities.

This one had a remote control!

This one had smoke bombs in the mouth that they lit first so the dragon was breathing fire- this one went the farthest

Some more of the cars waiting to be lit

Our first attempt at a car, it went 20 feet and then fell over :

This is the dragon car that won

This was our car, next year it will be even better!

Wet Boys

What do you do when your kids are restless but you don't have enough energy to take them to the park and the grass just finished growing in so you don't have a swing set set up yet? You let them strip down to their undies and diaper and "wash their car!"

They loved this and were at it for over an hour


Of course washing the car turned into splashing each other and emptying the buckets as fast as they could and asking for more water


They were giggling their heads off, it was so cute


I love that Evan is big enough now to really start playing with Christian, I can tell they are going to be good buddies

Summerfest

Oh dear Summerfest how I love you! I have so many great memories from high school spent at Summerfest and now have even more with my little family. We braved the weather and actually made it through without getting wet, we were at home for naps when it was raining. But we bundled the kids up and stayed for the parade and fireworks too. The boys loved the rides and couldn't get enough.

Don't you love Evan's face in this pic, he love ringing the bell. I think the guy who ran the ride should get a raise because all the kids loved the bells and I would have had a headache in about 5 minutes.


Me and Evan on the Ferris wheel about half way through the ride he was not sure if he liked it.


Dan sporting the latin lover mustache, as I like to call it.


Christian Boy


Evan Boy still trying to absorb everything.


Of course both of them loved the cars.


Christian was in heaven on the motorcycle.


Something I actually got really excited about along with the boys they had a helicopter and fire engine the kids could crawl around in, super cool!





Lots of fun, a little grumpy the next day but definitely worth it, can't wait for next year.

More Grass

Yes - we are that excited about grass that our last three posting have been about it. :)