A Red, White, and Blue Celebration!

So, for the 4th of July we decided to go to the zoo!! We have some friends in town and the kids have been having a blast together. It was a 2.5 hour drive there and then we spent 5.5 hours walking around and seeing all of the different animals and exhibits. The most patriotic part of the whole trip were the kids red, white, and blue shirts, but it was a lot of fun!

I think Jessie would let someone snap pictures of her all day as long as she could be making silly faces!

Janie absolutely LOVED the animals! She just kept running from one thing to the next making animal noises. It was so much fun watching her discover and explore. What a cute little bug!!
When we weren't inside looking at the animals Janie was finding other means of entertainment. I would say, "ready, set, go!" and she'd run down the hill. Look at that happy face. She was pretty much perfect all day long (accept the 5 hours of driving...)!

Here is a shot of my little man. I looked at him today and thought to myself that I just can't believe how grown up he is and what a wonderful, sweet boy he is. He is such a great helper to me! Jessie would rather play with him than anyone else and Janie just adores her big brother!!

I laughed when I looked at this picture because look at the girls. Jessie was just loving being there and kind of doing her own thing. Now, look at Janie. That child wouldn't be anywhere near us when we let her out of her stroller. She ran for about 3 hours of our time at the zoo. WHY didn't she sleep in the car on the way home?????? Those are our friends in front of us so I wasn't too worried about her escaping.

Here are my three red, white, and blue babies checking out the Sea Lions. Time sure does fly, I was thinking that in just a couple of years all of this "little kid" stuff would be over and I would surely be missing it!

This is a great shot of all of the kids together (minus Jacob)! They were trying to stand up on that lizard, but it was hot and so they couldn't touch it. They kept holding onto each other trying to balance for the photo. This was about the best we could get! Ethan and Jessie really had so much fun together during this trip. I looked over at one point and they had their arms around each other's necks and they were just being best buddies. Joseph and Kayla also enjoyed each other. I kept hearing Joseph ask Kayla if he could hold her hand.

All in all, it was a beautiful, HOT day! I guess by the end of the day there was a little more red, white and blue than we had expected. Red faces, white clouds, and blue skies made for a fun Fourth of July!

Later that night we took the kids and watched some fireworks here in town, which was a lot of fun. It was cute to hear the kids ooooohhh and aaaaahhh at the colors and sounds!