The Taylor Family: July 4th

I've had the chance to have a Fun-Filled Birthday week culminating in 4th of July celebrations.

The 26th, the kids performed at the Tooele Arts Festival and did a great job! It's always fun to watch them perform their martial arts!

That evening I DJ'd a wedding, and rolled in around 1am to see that the kids had made me a "Birthday" sign.

The 27th, being my actual birthday, I went to Church in the morning and DJ'd a party for the families of Hill Air Force Base in the evening. They were nice enough to have a birthday cake for me!

Shelly and I went out to dinner on Monday to celebrate. I love the chance to go on a date with my cute wife!

Fast Forward to Friday the 2nd. Shelly, Tara, Tiffany, Anna, Kylee, and Courtney went to the "Air Supply" concert here in Tooele while I DJ'd a wedding in SLC. I think we all were where we wanted to be, I do love spending time with my Wife, but Air Supply would have been a tough sell!

Traditionally Shelly's sister would have stayed here to go to the Tooele Parade, but apparently they decided to move on from us so we got to go to the parade with just us and the Loertscher's.

J.R. was running the 5K so we cheered him on as he passed..

We did get a "Flyover" of 4 F-16's from Hill Air Force Base to start the parade off... (I always love seeing that!)

Shelly, of course, had the kids looking cute for the 4th! (3rd)

After the parade we headed toward the park about 3 blocks away for the activities there, and Rylan and I learned first hand how crappy the sidewalks are in part of Tooele, we both tripped at the same time, lucky for Rylan he didn't take a chunk out if his big toe!

The park was otherwise uneventful except Rylan managed to win another goldfish, *sigh*!

That evening we had the Birthday Barbecue that I was pretty sure the Barnes Girls had scheduled but didn't attend! We did have it with the Loertscher's! There's something magical about a New York Steak cooked on the grill with freshly cooked corn and sauteed mushrooms!

We played some cards until it was time to light some fireworks!

I even managed to capture the "explosion" of a 'Snap' in Rylan's hand!

Sunday the 4th we visited my parents (no photos) then went to Tara and Wes' to let Kylee stay a few days, roast a few marshmallows, and do more fireworks!
Trevor was on "Fire Building" duty while Kylee entertained Noah and Rylan just chilled!

I've been playing with Timed Exposures on my new camera and captured a few cool Fireworks shots!

I took Friday off of work and decided to take Dylan on a bike ride. We headed up to the top of Middle Canyon and saw a little wildlife on the way.

The nice thing about the White Pine trail is that it's almost all downhill. However, the trail was in pretty rough shape, but Dylan was a trooper and held his own. I was rather proud of how well he rode.

We did manage to get us and the bikes extremely muddy thanks to a rainstorm the day before, so cleaning the bikes was order of business number one when we got home.

Just about that time, Tiff, Trevor, and the kids came to spend the night. We hung out for the afternoon, then Trevor went to help me DJ a party. I like having Trevor come DJ with me, it makes it even more fun being able to B.S. with him while I'm working.

4th Of July

I woke up to find that Jace had learned a new trick, apparently he can crawl in and out of a "Pack-n-Play" if he so chooses. I walked into Rylan's room to find this:

The first part of the morning was spent just loungin'...

Then it was off to the parade!

It was a bit cloudy, and the girls managed to get cold of course, luckily they brought a blanket just in case.

After the parade, we headed to the park so the kids could play on the bouncy houses...

And, more importantly, so that the girls could get their Cotton Candy fix!

From there, it was back to the house for the traditional BBQ! sadly, I overcooked the steaks :-[

And I'm not so sure playing "catch" with water balloons was the best idea!

The highlight of the day was Dylan getting his hair cut on the front lawn. Thanks to Trev and Tiff for tackling that one!

I didn't get the "After" picture, but it looked sooo much better!

That evening we went to some friends' for more food, and to hang out. The kids had a blast playing in the water.