take me back to the river on the 21st night of September

There is good and there is bad about getting so behind on posting here. 

The bad: how dang daunting it is to go back and try to catch up at the same time that life moves forward. and trying to remember what I have already shared.

The good: getting to revisit happy moments, especially of the summer season

I wonder how many river posts I have written this year? I seriously was there at least once a week for nearly six months so I guess it's warranted.

These were my girls on the second to last river run of the season. 

The sunset was breathtaking!

We knew that the river flow would be shut down at anytime. So we were so excited that on Sept. 21st we made it out for one last sunset run.

hello magical horses!

We knew we needed to end the season with a bang. So we played the whole river through. There was yoga, dancing, paddle board jumping, and swinging from the canyon rope. 

We combined all that fun into a music video entitled "the 21st night of September" to the song "September".

Goodbye, river! Until next season...

land that I love

God bless America, my home sweet home.

Our traveling plans changed last minute in order to be wise during the pandemic. But it all worked out beautifully because then we got to gather with family!

 

Who wouldn't want to spend a weekend with this crew??

The oldest and the youngest have a special relationship.

While all the kids played, the adults pulled out this game: Hanabi

It's a fun one! And since it had to do with fireworks we thought it was a great one for the Fourth of July. It is a cooperative game. It definitely took us a few hands to communicate productively, but we got better and had a good time.

Then we headed out to the pool for the rest of the evening.

Backflips for America!






They wanted to attempt Layla on top of me, but we didn't last very long like this anyways.

We loved swimming with all of the cousins.


















Thanks to this girl here for taking all of the swimming pictures from the side of the pool.

Brinna bug LOVES to jump in the water and go under.
















Splash!

When it got dark enough, we lit up the fire bowls. Eric placed this mystical fire powder on the flames (that he got last year for my burn, Cancer, burn party). This is the coolest stuff!


Magical green, blue, purple flames...

It was mesmorizing.

Doesn't this look like a dragon flame? so cool.

I totally love these pictures.

Soon the fireworks began! We stood in our backyard and could see them in just about every direction.

We set off some of our own small fireworks.

Sparklers!


Sparklers always remind me of Harry Potter. Lumos!

I went upstairs on our balcony and soaked in the view from there. 


So pretty and peaceful. I'm so grateful for my family and for this land that we live in.

We all loved when our next door neighbor shot off some big fireworks into the sky.

Such wonder!

summer days--sunburn (from the lake the day before), watermelon, and watching fireworks

Happy Independence Day, America!