Tad's Birthday & 4th of July Fun

This year for Tad's birthday, he was out of town all day, but got back just in time to go to Outback for dinner. I am so thankful to have him in our lives and for all he does for us.  Happy Birthday to my sweetheart!!

 I know, this cake doesn't exactly say "birthday", but I thought it was too cute and knew he'd enjoy it, which he did.  My boys were so excited for him to see it.

29 and not a day older!!

After his birthday dinner, we headed to the WY/CO border and visited Phantom Fireworks.  WOW!!  That is all I can say about that place after seeing SO many fireworks....WOW!  Needless to say, ALL of my boys were in heaven.  Something about fireworks and boys.  Ethan liked this one.....who DOESN'T need a reel of 16,000 firecrackers!!!  I love the look on his face.

Gavin was a fan of the Pyro Pulverizer...the name says it all.  It was so heavy that I had to help him hold it.  Let's just say we spent way more than we should have, but we were now ready to celebrate the 4th.

 On the 4th we headed over to our ward building for a pancake breakfast.  

It was delish and fun.  The boys loved having their faces painted.

 Logan with his fireworks face painting.

 Then Tad's sister Zoeanne and family, who live near Denver, came over to celebrate with us.  Their oldest daughter Ashley and her husband Owen came too!

 After eating, it was time for fireworks.  

Logan experienced his first smoke bomb and didn't quite know what to think of it.

 Then we did a parachute launching firework which had all the kids running in the street to catch them.

 Jeremy caught quite a few.

This kid is amazing.  A couple of hours earlier, he was jumping on our trampoline and over rotated on a front flip and ended up with his knee bouncing into his lower jaw.  He came into the house with a bloody mouth and his bottom teeth all pushed back.  He went into the bathroom and pulled them all forward.  His parents called their dentist on call and made arrangements to get an x-ray done the next day.  The x-ray showed he'd cracked his lower jaw bone, but luckily, because he had braces on, his teeth were okay and he'd have to wear his braces a few months longer so everything can heal right.  He didn't complain and was running around a couple hours later lighting fireworks.

 Ethan with his loot.

 Tank races...

 Then later we lit the larger fireworks & had quite the show.  We had so much fun hanging out with the Yoshikawa's and look forward to when they come up again.