4th of July

We had a great 4th of july hanging out with Sam's family.

We invited people over to our house and we swim and had a BBQ.

The kids love to be thrown in the air. 

Even Rachel--(although not sure how much longer we will have the muscles to throw her anymore)  There are times when she still feels like my little girl...but this is not one of those times :)

This my seem like a measley sparkler to you--but it is the very first sparkler that I have ever lit in Phoenix.  fireworks have been illegal here every since we were little.  Just last year I think, they started allowing them (not sure why--as I agree that the whole state is practically a fire hazard...but whatever).  There are fireworks stands all over now, the only problem is they are allowed to sell them, but you are only allowed to set them off in certain cities.  Here in chandler only novelty fireworks )sparklers and those snap pop things that you throw on the ground).  So we bought both and let the girls go crazy.

After watching Fireworks in boston, nothing can compare, so I won't go there.  What I will say is that it was a nice a relaxing evening where we just drove about a mile from our house and parked on a side street and watched from there.  I will also say that it was a step up from having no fireworks to watch at all while we were up on the Rez.