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What a great weekend! I spent it pretty much unplugged from the world (internet, email, ham radios..) And it was a nice, welcome break. We spent the 4th up at my uncle Dan's place in Brazil and then went to the St Louis LDS temple on Saturday.

The 4th was a lot of fun. There were a few 4-wheel ATVs and about 26 acres to ride around. What surprised us all is how much Trevor loved to ride, and boy did he throw a fits when it was time to stop!!

From 2008

Trevor got to try it out for himself, but somehow this just isn't the same:

From 2008

We were also able to get Tristen on it for a ride, but he was very reluctant at first. Tristen is our cautious child, while Trevor jumps at anything without hesitation.

From 2008

And of course there were fireworks.. LOTS of fireworks.. We had well over 100 aerial shells and a dozen fountain cakes to fire off, and had fun doing it. My favorite by far were these plastic tube aerials, instead of the brown paper-wrapped shells. The plastic shells flew higher and had a bigger spread. They came with 2 dozen shells and 2 thick plastic tubes (to handle a bigger blast than a cardboard tube).

Unfortunately one of them didn't work quite right. We could tell right away when we saw fire shoot up instead of the shell going up, and knew that the second bang would be coming from the ground. Lucky for us this was a thick plastic tube, and the explosion didn't quite reach Dan and I. I think if this were in a cardboard tube the result would have been a bit more painful.

From 2008

The kids spent Saturday with Grandma and Nan, who got Tristen a haircut while out shopping. I was taking this picture for Tristen's new chore chart but Nicole really likes it for his smile and new hair cut:

From 2008

It was a great weekend! Good to be back home in Indiana and near family..