ND Pictures

Here are the long awaited pictures from our trip to North Dakota...at least a few of them.

The cutie with the curly hair is my niece, Addison...isn't she just about the cutest thing you've ever seen??? And just ask her any question and she shakes her head "NO!"...it's so adorable! The only question she doesn't answer "NO" to is "Do you want a raspberry?" She'll come running from the other end of the house to answer this question with a mouth open wide! Again, I say...ADORABLE!

Here the kids are waiting for the 4th of July parade to begin...and the raining of candy, which of course is the best part of ANY parade! The boy in the chair behind the kids on the curb is my oldest nephew, Hunter (he's too old for chasing after candy...yea right!)...and his younger brother, Braden, is sitting next to Andrew (Braden is 8 months older than Andrew...they are the best of friends!). Addison is their baby sister.Here Bethany is a bit saddened because she didn't get one of the candies thrown out from a float, the other kids are much quicker than she...but they all shared in the end! (WAY too much candy anyway!) What would the 4th of July be without sparklers and fireworks? My new camera has a cool "fireworks" setting! Very neat. Got some cool shots of the kids with their sparklers and the fireworks. We had 8 children, and 4 "grown" men who shot of literally hundreds of dollars in fireworks...WHEW! Can you say NERVOUS! I am always so worried that someone will get hurt. Then when one of the guys lit a roman candle, and put it in the pipe (stuck in the ground to hold such an item!) UPSIDE DOWN! (it was an accident, he thought that was the right way!) It flew out on the first round and then shot it's fireballs right where all the children were...THANK GOD no one got hit! We all were pretty freaked out, but all went well from then on. Bethany did back into Abbigail's sparkler, but only got a tiny red mark on her shoulder, but I think it scared her more than anything.

While we were in ND, the church where hubby grew up celebrated their 125th anniversary! We had picnics, horse carriage rides, games, a balloon release, and lots of other fun stuff. Here are a few pictures from that! It's literally a little country church, dirt roads and all! This is what the church looks like from the back of the horse carriage.

Here is a very rare picture of my mother-in-law. I think this may be only the third or fourth picture of her that I have, not including wedding pics. She doesn't know I took it! ;o) She did a lot of the work for the anniversary festivities.

These other cuties are my other niece and nephew (Bailey & Maddox). Their dad is in Iraq serving in the army...actually he should be HOME right now for his 2 weeks of R&R. Originally we thought he would be home over the 4th, so we would be able to see him, but the army postponed his leave for a few weeks, so it didn't work out. Prayers for his continued safety are very much appreciated!

OKOKOK...so there are more than a few, but hey, it's MY blog! Besides, they are cute kiddos, what are ya gonna do? :o)