July 4

We started the Fourth of July festivities quite early.  Since David and one other guy were in charge of the Fourth of July Breakfast for our ward (the Elder's Quorum and the Young Men were in charge) David was up at 5:30 cooking sausage for a whole slew of people.  He got to the park early and decorated. 

The breakfast turned out great.  We had a lot of people come.

We honored those people who have served in the military and had them come up while the song played from their branch of the military.

David's niece Suzanne came up from Portland to spend the day with us.  She and Rachel's friend Emma were twinners in their navy and white striped shirts.

We had lots of yummy food!

William is always willing to give a smile for the camera.

After breakfast we took turns reading paragraphs from the Declaration of Independence.  Even Kate got to read. 

 Then we had a parade.

That afternoon we had a fabulous block party with our neighborhood.  I forgot to take any pictures, but most everyone from the neighborhood was there.  We had a potluck and spent several hours meeting some new neighbors and chatting with the ones we already knew.  The kids played for hours and William got soaked in a big waterfight with all the big boys.  Ben stayed home sick, poor guy. 

Kate, Sarah, Rachel, Suzanne and I left the block party a bit early to go get ready and head to Seattle for this:

Because it was the Fourth of July, we ended up getting a fabulous deal on tickets to see Les Miserables at the 5th Avenue Theater.  As in, we paid $22 a ticket for seats that were regularly $137.  We decided it was worth skipping fireworks.  We drove to Seattle and met up with my mom who brought my nieces Erika and Lauren who were staying with her.  The show was fantastic!  It was my fourth time seeing it, but it is fabulous every time!  Both Sarah and Rachel are reading the book right now, so it was really neat for them to see it.  Kate got a little sleepy, but loved being a part of an outing with the big girls.  And I think Erika and Lauren loved it too!