Our Independence Day Getaway

We made a trip to visit family in Billings over the 4th of July again this year. It is always a lot of fun. We hardly see Sari the whole time she is so busy playing with her cousins. The weather was so cool it almost didn't feel like summer. Most of the days we were there it didn't reach 70 degrees. Now that we're back home and it's been 95 degrees or hotter, I wish we could go back to the coolness.

Kate loved the attention she got from her cousins too. Whitney is in the background of this picture getting a ukulele lesson from Scott.

Here's our annual cousin line-up shot. Ryan and Kris's five kids are missing from the shot this year. They didn't make the trip with their less than 2 week old. :)



We made a quick trip to the zoo one of the afternoons that we were there. Sari was happy to see the red pandas. When she was really little she saw a picture of them in a magazine and wouldn't ever let me throw the picture out. She was slightly afraid of the picture and loved it at the same time.Everyone was worn out by the end of the trip. The drive home seemed much longer than the extra hour it did take us to get there. When we still had 8 hours to drive Kate peed in her car seat, so that was quite the adventure.

Since we've been home the kids have stayed asleep an extra hour or so in the morning. That was one benefit of keeping them up late every night and letting them sleep in as long as they wanted. Unfortunately, they have just started to return to their normal early wake up time. I was really enjoying the extra sleep!