Amber Waves of Grain...

We had a FABULOUS Fourth of July Weekend!  The last two years we have been on vacation over the 4th.  After building the house, we thought we would save our pennies and "vacation" at home this summer.  And, we had heard over and over again how great our neighbor's 4th of July party was...so we thought we'd check it out ourselves this year.  Let's just say it didn't disappoint.  My favorite part about attending their party was that, to get there, we only had to walk across the front yard...and do get home, yep you guessed it, we only had to walk across the front yard - in the opposite direction of course.  Brody took a rockin' nap until about 6:30pm so he was good to go for the fireworks. 

So we played for a while, ate some good food, and then let off these great hot air balloons.  They were really beautiful floating in the sky - although I can't help but wonder...where did they go?  Where did these little burning balls of paper and wire land and what damage did they do?  Thankfully, they didn't land on our house, but I spent a good portion of the night with a bit of worry in the back of my mind that they were landing on someone's house and ruining their 4th of July celebration.  We didn't hear any sirens, so...

Brody's first experience with sparklers...how cute is he??!!

And now the balloons...see, they're cool, but don't you wonder where they went and what damage they did?

And then came the fireworks...or more appropriately the FIREWORKS!  Oh yes, they were that good.  Unfortunately, the video I took of them won't load...likely because they were so awesomely awesome that they would blow up the computer...or it could be because the file is too large...or maybe, just maybe it is some karmic (is that a word?) reason that it won't load because the fire department would catch wind of it and our neighbors would be arrested (because those were no legal back yard fireworks) and we wouldn't be able to enjoy them next year...you never know! 
So to give you an idea of the scale of this fireworks production, here is a photo of the set up...I pretended to be interested in how they were set up and planned, but in reality, I was gathering information for insurance purposes just in case there was a misfire that demolished our new house!

Brody absolutely loved the first 15 minutes of the fireworks...and then I think the night caught up with him and he was ready for bed and snuggled through the remained of the show.  We headed home (yep, just across the yard) and washed all the bug spray and face paint off of our boy, and we were all in bed by 10:45pm.  Sadly, going to bed over three hours past his regular bedtime only made Brody sleep in an hour later than usual!

We spent the rest of the weekend at home.  It was the hottest weekend that we've had so far this summer, in the 90's, and so Brody spent most of it as he calls "nudey" or with only a swimmy on...and I spent most of it wishing that it was acceptable for a 31-year old woman to do the same.  Somehow Ryan was able to work (like manual labor, moving rocks, building walls, shoveling dirt and gravel type work) through the heat.  I worked for about a half hour and then had to get a drink and sit down...then could work for another half hour...and so on.  I married a working machine...which makes me very happy most of the time, but sometimes I just want to go inside, sit in the AC, and use the hot weather as an excuse to do nothing!

Brody and his swimmy...

Ryan and his rock wall...

And did I ever show you my rain barrel?  I LOVE it for two reasons...1.) it prevents part of the driveway and walkway from flooding during heavy rains and 2.) it has provided enough water for me to water all of my plants and gardens all summer!

And, while we're at it and this post is now incredibly long, I'll show you my vegetable garden.  It got a late start this year, but is coming right along now!

So now that you're thoroughly bored from looking at pictures of tomato plants, I'll promise that the next post will be full of life and VERY exciting!