July 2 and July 9

Our hometown, Clearfield, Iowa, always has a big 4th of July celebration. For the past couple of years, the Lions Club has set up a couple of rides a day or two before the 4th, and call if Family night, and all of the kids can ride the rides for free. This has been a nice addition to the festivities in my opinion, because on the 4th there are so many kids that the lines are quite long for the rides and you don't have time to ride many of them before the night is over. On Family night, they also give away free hot dogs and ice cream. We went up to Main Street for Family night and ate hot dogs while they were setting up the rides.


Colton, Gage, Dustin, Emma and Scott taking it easy on the park bench eating their free hot dogs. It started threatening to rain while we were there, and later it cut loose. I don't remember when I've seen it rain that hard (I don't know if it has since we've been in Bismarck?) So, they didn't get the rides set up.


After the big rain, there were huge water puddles at the corner of Main Street and the street my parents' house is on. The kids couldn't wait to get their bikes out to ride through the puddles! Emma was quick to get her swim suit on for the occasion!

Gage takes a ride through the big puddle.

Here he comes back again! :-)

Ooops! Crash!

Here's another crash waiting to happen! I couldn't believe it when I saw these crazies ride by on this bike! I think I might draw the line at that?

This is what you call a Redneck Water Park! My sister got in her car and drove by to splash the kids!

What fun this was! She couldn't get up enough speed to cause a huge splash because the kids kept jumping around and you couldn't be sure if they weren't going to jump out in front of her!

Gage's back is just covered in mud splatters. It's hard to see here in this picture, but believe me, he was!

Weeee!

Because of the big rain, nightcrawler hunting was the activity after sundown! I've never seen anyone nightcrawler hunting in a bathing suit before!

It took awhile, but Gage started to get the hang of pulling those slimy worms out of their holes. I used to hunt nightcrawlers alot growing up for my Mom to use when she would go fishing! It's hard on the back, that's for sure! (In case you're wondering why Gage has a hummingbird feeder hanging from his wrist, it's because they were using them to put the fireflies (or lightning bugs as I used to call them) they were catching in.)

Colton pulls out his own nightcrawler! (Notice he also has a hummingbird feeder hanging from his wrist!)

This is a 3-man operation!

I think we ended up catching about 4 dozen or so. Scott's Dad had already gotten a couple of dozen before we showed up, but we certainly helped the numbers! They went fishing the following day and caught a few bass I believe.

Back to present time:

Today has been a pretty quiet day. Emma and Colton had Safety Village again today and learned about trains and how you should never throw things at trains because they could ricochet back and hit you. I think they also learned some farm safety, as I saw a bunch of toy tractors set up on the table. I believe they were showing them why you should never crawl into a grain bin, as you could get trapped and suffocate. Good stuff for Colton to be learning since he lives on a farm! :-)

We've been playing some Guitar Hero on Dustin's Playstation 2 and I believe I am getting addicted. I'm starting to think I need to invest in a Wii!?!?!? YIKES! It's really bad because I seem to be justifying the thought of purchasing it by thinking I would buy the Wii Fit and get in shape! HA!