Happy 4th of July!

We made our annual pilgrimage to Malad, Idaho for the 4th of July. We love going, every year. We had such a nice, relaxing visit this time. My sister Julie and her younger children came up and spent the night which was lots of fun.

 

We started the day out with the parade, then the kids headed into town for the shoot-out while the adults shopped for last minute items for lunch. Then we all headed up to the ranch for the family Salmon bake and tons of great food. People started to slowly leave and the last of us cleaned up in a huge hurry as a thunderstorm moved in quickly and it started to pour.

 

About this time we were starting to get worried as Tyler and Darl had not come back with the 4-wheelers. Grandpa jumped into the truck and headed out to look for them while we finished last minute clean-up. When we were loaded up, Chris and I headed up to look for them as well. We met them coming down the road at the mouth of the canyon. Darl's 4-wheeler had broken down pretty far away and they needed gas and a tow rope to get it out. I took the kids home while Chris, his dad and some of the adult grandkids went back to retrieve the other 4-wheeler. Chris said they were really far away (there is a point where vehicles can't go any further and they were at least a mile or so past that) and it was stuck down a ravine. While they were pulling it out, Tyler was driving and the other 4-wheeler hit a rock snapping Tyler's 4-wheeler back and flipping it over backwards. Luckily he was able to jump off and scramble out of the way with some minor scratches and bruises. We were so blessed that everyone made it out ok. Needless to say the boys had a little "chat" with Grandpa about limits!

Later that evening we watched the great fireworks show that Malad puts on. The kids set off their fireworks while we waited. I am always so impressed at the great show considering how tiny the town is. Way better than our fireworks here where we live in a big city.

The rest of the vacation we relaxed, watched movies, swam, and ate! It was such a nice weekend with family. I was terrible though and hardly took any pictures!