The "meat" of the 4th of July - the Parade and the Carnival!

Two of my favorite parts of of the 4th of July here in Belle Fourche is the 2 hour parade and the carnival! At the parade, we met up with our friends, Desiree and her kids, and Amy and Avryl and everyone had a great time! They all got A TON of candy that will be in our candy dish for months to come.

After the parade, we came home for lunch and then it was off to the carnival! It's really fun now that the kids are older because they will go on more rides and most importantly, we don't have to go on all of the rides with them! I do not do well with carnival rides, but I did go on the spinning bears and the ferris wheel, but that's about all I can handle now. After about 4 hours of riding rides, we walked home, took a much needed nap, ate dinner, and then went to DQ for some ice cream! By then, it had cooled off so we headed back to the carnival for a few more hours of riding rides!

The 4th of July Race - The Roundup 10K

Every year that we have lived here, Chris has ran the annual 4th of July race, the Roundup 10K. The start line is just down the street from our house and then finishes right at the park across the street from our house so it's easy to get to! There are a couple of hills on the course, but since Chris runs them in his training runs anyway, they really aren't a big deal. He finished in 40:42, which was his EXACT time from last year!, 6th overall and 1st in his age group. The kids made a sign for him and held it up as he came across the bridge for the finish. They also made signs for our friends, Tim and Amy who also ran the race. It was a fun way to start off our 4th of July!

4th of July - The Rodeo and The Fireworks

Every year, we take the kids to the rodeo at the Black Hills Roundup, which is held here during the 4th of July weekend. This year, we also went with our friends, the Haas family. Right before the rodeo was to start, there was a huge downpour that lasted quite a while. We had the BBQ in the rain, but then as soon as the rodeo started, the sun came out and it was a beautiful evening. The kids had a great time watching all of the cowboys do their thing and Caiden especially loved the Bull riding. Chloe LOVES horses so anytime there was a horse out there, she was watching. Caiden caught a Frisbee that was thrown into the audience and that really made his night!




The fireworks show in Belle for the 4th of July are actually always on the night of the 3rd of July and last year Chloe HATED them and Chris had to take her home. Not this year though! We went with our friend, Desiree, and her kids and all of the kids loved them this year! It was a great show as usual and we all had a great time!

Happy 20th Birthday Kelly!

For Kelly's 20th birthday, we had a BBQ at our house with lots of friends and their families. It was so much fun to all get together and enjoy the day. That day, we had found out that she was moving back to MT, so it was a going away party of sorts too. We will miss her, but I know we will still see her lots and talk to her even more! Happy Birthday to Kelly! We hope you have a great 20th year!

Swimming Lessons 2009

Swimming lessons went really well this year considering neither of the kids wanted anything to do with it last year. They love being in the water, but up until this year, they were still not very comfortable in the water. As the 2 weeks went on, I could see Chloe doing more in the water than she ever had before. Caiden loves to go under now and stay down there for a while! It makes me nervous as a mom, but I know he can do it! ;) On the last day of lessons, they put life jackets on the kids and they got to go down the big slide by themselves with someone catching them at the bottom. Caiden fell instantly in love with this activity and the whole hour was spent going down the slide. Chloe went down, but with her teacher, but now she will go down by herself as long as we are at the bottom to catch her. I love that they are getting more and more independent in the water and can't wait to see them really swimming soon!

T-ball 2009

Caiden had a fun year in T-ball this summer and by the end of June, you could really see improvement in all of the kids on the team. Caiden bats and throws left handed and both his batting and his fielding got better throughout their season. It was a lot of fun to watch. One of the most memorable hits of Caiden's this season was a line drive right to his coach's head where the ball flipped the coach's hat off! :) They don't keep score at this age - everyone gets a turn to bat and they get 3 chances to hit it by the coach pitching and then it goes to the Tee after that. And then everyone gets to go out in the field. They taught the kids to throw the ball to 1st base so Caiden learned quickly that he liked playing 1st base! Chris and I both helped out with the team this year during some of the games (Chris pitching, me getting the kids lined up to bat and making sure they had their helmets on) and that was a lot of fun. Chloe liked going to the games as long as she got popcorn while we were there! :) Here are a couple of videos for you to enjoy!

Long Time, No Blog!

I can't believe it's been a month since I have blogged about anything! Well, A LOT has been going on and I have a lot to talk about! I'm hoping to get everything on here in the next couple of days so be on the look out for it! Thanks for keeping up with us!