4th of July weekend!

We went to one of the most beautiful places on earth for our 4th of July Weekend, COLORADO! We haven't had a 4th of July weekend in Colorado for 3 years! It was definitely a great weekend! My whole side of the family was there except one sister. We really missed her this past weekend. It was a mini family reunion.

On the 4th we went to the parade in the morning. Not everyone went because they were being fun suckers, so my parents, Colby and I, Felicia (one of my sisters), and our youngest 3 siblings went and enjoyed the parade. The parade had lots of fun floats and groups. We saw lamas, corvettes, classic cars, Beatles and politicians, school cheerleaders, fire department and the Mormon missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day saints! There were over 100 missionaries in the parade it was so fun to see. I even  saw pictures from friends that the parade had Elephants!! Unfortunately, we were too late to see the elephants, but overall we all had a great time and the kids really enjoyed it too, but they mostly liked the candy.

Dad rubbing ice on Jonathan's back! 

I wish I had a chair and so did Katie, so she used me as her chair! It was not very comfortable. 

The boys waiting for candy

Katie's Gma glasses

After the parade we went home and hung around and some of the kids and Colby  played soccer in the front yard. Then we cleaned out the kiddie pool for the kids play in it and set it all up again, but by the time we were done the thunder clouds rolled in and while we did not get much rain we still had lightning and thunder, so we skipped playing outside for a bit. By then, it was BBQ time! My sister made some amazing pulled pork and we all sat outside on the deck and enjoyed the perfect weather, mountains, cool breeze, and bug free Colorado!

Unfortunately, since Colorado has had some really bad fires last year all fireworks have been banned. There may have been a couple shows in all of Colorado with some heavy regulations, but they were too far to travel to see. And our little neighborhood had banned all little fireworks like sparklers! So instead we put the little kids to bed and then played games the rest of the night! It was the best way to celebrate. We did however saw 4 big fireworks outside our windows and really enjoyed them, but hope no one go in trouble. :) This is also the trip that the rest of the family was able to meet baby John!

Baby John and his Mommy!

 The next day,Saturday, we had a very full day! It started out with a some of us going up mount Herman to do some shooting, which is always fun! My dad stills proves to have great aim every time! And even  my little brother, Jonathan (with some help of course) shot the shotgun as well. 

After spending the morning in the mountains, we all packed into the cars to do some intense laser tagging! We found this place called battlefield Colorado where the laser tag is outside on 3 acres of land and we split off into teams and play a series of different scenarios games with the laser guns. It was a blast. I was on team alpha and Colby on team Bravo. Needless to say, Alpha of course won overall!

Laser tag crew!

Once we got home from laser tagging we had dinner and then  got ready for a paint war! I bought some washable paint from Wal-mart and it worked so well! I wanted to play capture the flag and split off in teams, but the paint ended up being a free-for-all and  we gained up on each other. The little kiddos had fun too! After the paint mess, the boys played soccer for a while and then we all gradually washed up. Once clean we broke off into teams again and played settlers of catan. It was a good way to end the day.

Getting ready for war! 

Before the mayhem!

Let the fight begin! 

Tackle Colby! 

Even John and the videographer joined in the fun! 

After chaos!

Then on Sunday we all said goodbye. Colby and I drove back to Texas. My sister, her husband, their baby and my other sister drove to Las Vegas. The weekend was too short and I wish we could have all stayed a bit longer. But it was worth seeing everyone! 

Saying goodbye to the beautiful mountains on our way out! We will meet again!