The Fourth (And The Third, Second, And First)

We spent our last few days with the Pearsons before they headed off to enjoy a reunion with McKay's family.

We drove to Red Lodge to see the zoo, eat some famous Red Lodge pizza and buy some candy from the infamous Red Lodge candy store. Or as McKay corrected called it, "gold". For the price per pound, that candy SHOULD have been gold.

The Red Lodge zoo is full of animals that have been rescued--either they were orphaned, injured, or some human found them as babies and thought it would be fun to have one of those in their backyard.

Is it just me, or is Elmo trying to make an escape?

We checked out the turtles

and tamed the savage beast.

Makayla practiced her horse whisperer skills. Just between you and me, that was the ONLY whispering she did that day.

The next morning I hung out with Brinlee so her parents could go golfing.

 Brinlee knows how to rock a bedhead.

She fixed it by putting on a black headband.

Brinlee is really into tractors. It's like her Daddy grew up on a farm or something.

Brinlee realized that one headband wasn't cutting it and added a second band.

Brinlee walked around our house sadly saying "Mommy, Mommy!" until I said the magic words: "bouncy bouncy!!" Brinlee pretty much is happy whenever she can walk around the trampoline.

I offered to let McKay and Ashley take ours home. They declined.

In totally unrelated news, I found this cute group while pulling pictures off my phone.

 

 On the fourth we headed to Castlerock Park. Silly how we drove to Red Lodge to see animals when the deer and the antelope play right in our own backyard. Maybe I should take that baby antelope home so that Red Lodge zoo inherits a new animal when he gets too big for our spare bedroom?

The first thing we saw in the park was this endearing pony-tailed girl, climbing the tower.

The Harvest Church puts this Fourth of July event on every year--it has dozens of bouncy toys you can play on for free. We got there right when they opened, and a couple of hours later it was wall-to-wall crowded.

The girls had a ball climbing

sliding,

running,

and jumping.

Megan, this one's for you. I KNOW you'd rather be jumping with Winnie than sitting on some ridiculously gorgeous Carolina beach with David.

We even  stopped by Mt.  Rushmore.

After playing at the park for a while, we headed to Kent's house for a BBQ and swim in their pool. That's pollywog Makayla, trying to land on/near/by Spencer.

Spencer tossed Hailey around a few dozen times. She had way too much fun.

 Finally, we headed back to the park for Harvest Church's amazing fireworks show.

It was duly spectacular

 and LOUD.

Maybe a bit too loud for some people.

 HAPPY JULY!!!