Fourth of July!

How was your 4th of July? Ours was pretty fun...we had thought we would go pick berries, but since it had rained very hard for the entire day on the 3rd of July, we passed on taking the clan out to the mud. Instead I went to the stand in town and bought some fresh market berries. They were still decent, though not as good as the first u-pick trip. Anyway, we spent the rest of the day hanging around, cleaning, and getting ready for a barbeque. Some friends from Logos (Todd & Melissa White - Ed carpools with Todd) came over and we did brats and hot dogs, ate yummy fruit salad with fresh raspberries from Melissa's garden, had lots of chips and salsa and fresh strawberry daiquiris (non-alcoholic so the kids could have some too), and generally enjoyed ourselves out on the patio. Then we had a great chalk art contest, drawing fireworks on the patio, before going in to play a new Wii game and then heading back out after dark to do a few fireworks. Before yesterday, I had never bought fireworks at a stand, can you believe that? Anyway, we got some pretty tame things...pop-it's, flowers, and jumping jacks...though Becca & Elise were more scared of those than of the illegal bottle rockets the neighbors were sending into the air! We finally put the kids to bed around 10:30 and our friends left a bit later. It was a good celebration of our country's birthday!

This morning we woke up late, which was nice; but soon discovered that my laptop was completely dead. Nothing. It'll sort of turn on, but that's it. So, we spent a little time messing with it and making some phone calls. Ed finally decided that on our trip to B'ham we would just buy something to recover everything off the hard drive because just to get someone to look at it to try to fix it would cost half of what a new laptop would cost...and that's before we even know if it's even fixable! So, we accomplished that task and he has already recovered everything, pictures included. Thank goodness I have a computer nerd for a husband! Anyway, for now Ed & I have to share a computer...imagine that! ;) We'll watch for deals and take our time buying a new one. I have to get used to Ed's computer and figure out where everything is that he recovered, but I think I can handle it.

Anyway, here are the fourth of July pictures!