4th of July

For the 4th of July this year, we decided to head to Island Park as has become our family tradition.  I purchased a fireworks pack from a cute little girl in our ward who was raising money for dance.  So we had lots of fancy fountains and some other novelty fireworks to light off before we headed to the forest where we can't light off fireworks!

We also decided to head to the cabin a day later than we normally do so that Ashlyn and Ian could finish out a work week.  Because we were sticking around, we headed to the Blackfoot Ranch Rodeo, which is a rodeo like no other.  They have lots of little fun competitions that ranchers should be good at.  It was fun to watch members of our community participate and Whitlee decided to get in the arena for the watermelon race.  The kids had to race to a watermelon and sit on it and then they got to keep it.  Whitlee didn't make it to a watermelon on time, but was still able to make her way to an otterpop!

Blue tongue from an otterpop and a silly quote Whitlee put on her wall that she got from Ashlyn.

One of the biggest draws to the rodeo was that the Musick family would be performing.  Ashlyn's favorite country performer is Ian Munsick and this is his Dad and Brother performing.  Ashlyn wasn't near as impressed with them as she is with Ian, but it was still fun to hear some live music and fiddling.

The most gorgeous sunset went down while we were enjoying the music and you could see so many individual beams of light.

At the cabin, our boat was once again broken, so we ended up watching the boat parade and fireworks from the shore.

We have loved enjoying our last few weeks with Ashlyn before she takes off for the Philippines.  The girls have had such a wonderful bond this summer, it makes me want it to last forever!

Happy Birthday America!