Independence Weekend

Hello again! It's been awhile, so I thought I'd share some of our busy weekend events. I've been a productive person since I last blogged. I finished VBS, saw the movie Eclipse (awesome), scrapbooked at a Twilight themed crop, had a garage sale and attended numerous baseball, softball and track meets. Phew!

I also figured out what was wrong with Madison's hands. It appears that the cream I have used for eczema has helped tremendously. I wished I would have tried that first before going to the doctor's office. The burn cream that they applied did not work and was billed to my insurance as an "office surgery" for $153. I would think surgery would imply some type of needle or cutting. Ridiculous! The doctor said she'd spare me the cost of the expensive cream called Silvadene. Little did we know that one week later, Madison would get a painful, 3 inch burn on her leg caused at Girl Scout Day Camp off of a metal fire pit ring. I'd post a picture, but it's disgusting and Madison protested that I couldn't put it on the blog either. So, you are spared this one.

On to our Independence Day Weekend, which seemed to last forever with an added day off....

On Saturday morning, we met my parents and my sister and her kids at the Henry Doorly Zoo. My brother had to work and unfortunately, his wife couldn't find a spot to park at the zoo. It was a mad house with the College World Series just getting over with and it appeared that everyone also wanted to go to the zoo. I didn't take many pictures since I didn't recharge my battery and it died. Instead of taking photos, I spent my time counting tattooed people. I lost track after 47.
Later Saturday night, we went to our friends, the Horner's house, for some barbeque and fireworks. This wasn't my day for photo taking because this above photo is as good as it gets!
Sunday it rained, rained and rained some more! We decided at the last minute to attend the 4th of July parade in Seward at 4pm. The rain held off for the parade and it was terrific. The crowds were less and the weather wasn't hot and miserable like most years. Tyler didn't want in the picture, so I took one of Madison and Grant instead.

I thought this float was hilarious. They made photos of all the graduates of 1970 and put them on foam board. As you can tell, there were a pretty good number of grads for small town Seward, but only two decided to be on the float forty years later. Either the majority experienced premature death before the age of sixty or no one cared to attend. I'm hoping it's the latter of the two.
After the parade, we drove back to Lincoln to catch a good ole' Saltdog's game. As we entered the stadium, Tyler was approached to participate in a (between the innings) game. He competed in a bat spinning/sack race and his team won. He's pictured on the right wearing a black shirt. His partner (a 5 yr. old) in the race had to spin in circles with his head on a bat and then run to Tyler in a dizzy stupor, tagging him as Tyler then hopped to the finish. Their prize each was a small bag of tennis balls and velcro mitts.
We called our friends, the Jensen gang, to meet us at the game. They have four kids and, of course, we have three, so I got a group photo with Homer the Saltdog mascot and Ronald McDonald. I thought it was very patriotic for the 4th....burgers and baseball.

Ronald asked me if all seven of the kids were mine. I quickly responded "no". I now wished I would have replied, "Yes, they are all mine. I don't believe in using condiments."
Today was very much like a weekend, as many in the workforce had the day off since the 4th fell on a Sunday. It was a nice day to have Andy around for an extra day of family fun. Tyler had to work at the Lincoln Zoo today, so we dropped by for a visit. Tyler just recently moved to the Pony rides from the Critter Counter. Of course, I had to get that picture of Tyler giving Grant a ride on Butch the ornery horse.

Butch has the incredible ability to unhook himself and run away, which I'd give anything to see. I guess he plays "can't catch me" quite well. He's one smart horse and Tyler just loves his personality. Tyler said that you have to watch Butch if you put a rather heavy child on his back. Butch won't retaliate against the child, but did let Tyler know the weighty kid wasn't appreciated. He bit him on his backside when he did so today.

This summer is consisting of burns, rashes and horse bites on the rear end...

I just had to include this picture from the Butterfly Papillion. Grant got his fingers sprayed with sugar water to attract the butterflies. His crossed-eyed look makes me smile!
We even ran into Grant's buddy, Cameron, from Tyler's baseball games. They have loads of fun together.
We ended our weekend with margaritas and s'mores at the Jensen's house tonight. Angie, another of my scrappin' buddies, and her family were also over. The mosquitos were fierce, but we managed with loads of bug spray and a blazing fire pit to ward them off.
I thought I'd share my own s'more experience...yikes, no makeup! I even wore my s'more shirt that read..."S'more friends, S'more fun, S'more, S'mores!"

Hope you too had an enjoyable holiday weekend!