Vacation-4th of July evening

After dinner was over we headed over to the school to play on the playground for a while.

 Some of the slides were pretty dusty, so the kids got a bit dirty. Especially Lena and Annie.

 Notice the dirt all over their legs and arms and hands. The bathwater was brown when they were done with it.

 Annie went right to sleep, but the fireworks and firecrackers kept waking up poor Ryan (who didn't sleep well our whole vacation anyway). We must have gotten him to sleep 8-10 times before we got him to sleep for good an hour and a half later.
But Rachel had a good time playing with sparklers for her first time and watching the fireworks. Then she fell promptly to sleep when it was time to come in.

 It was probably the best 4th of July my kids have ever had. One of my best, too.

The following day the kids played and enjoyed time with cousins and aunts and uncles while I packed. We ate lunch then started for home. Our goal was to get to Kingman for the night, and we made it, just an hour later than I thought, thanks to Annie making us stop 5 extra times because she wouldn't pee when we had regular potty stops. I held her on the potty screaming before we left Provo, but she didn't go, but before we hit Nephi she was calling for a potty stop. Then again at Scipio. And so it went. But we made it. And the kids slept well.
Saturday we went the rest of the way home and made it around 1:00pm, which left us plenty of time to do some laundry, unpack, clean out the car, get some groceries, and get our lessons ready to teach for Sunday. 2+ weeks away on vacation was TONS of fun, but being away for so long just makes it that much sweeter to get home. Even the kids were excited to be home.