4th of July fun!

For the 4th of July we decided to be adventurous and venture a little further away from home. We went to Ft Leavenworth (an army base) to celebrate our country's independence day. We had read in a travel magazine about Ft Leavenworth being a great choice for the 4th and we really wanted to check out another fireworks show from last year. We went to Independence last year and not that it was bad but we didn't have a great view, too many tree's in the way, and the traffic was a mess. Ft Leavenworth is about 30 minutes away from home so not too far. Was it worth it? YES!!! We had so much fun! It was a very patriotic show and was awesome! They shot off a cannon for all 50 states, I didn't get a picture of that but I will next year with all the state flags displayed. Because this is our new family tradition for July 4th. So, here are all the pics from our fun day!






We brought a picnic lunch of homemade pulled pork sandwiches and salads and all the other sides to go with a traditional picnic- it was so yummy. I have to pat myself on the back because it was delicious! And of course I ate way too much and seeing these pictures reinforces my slimfast plan!






They had a couple of inflatable toys that the kids could play on. And bonus: it was all for free. They had workers there to keep it orderly and fair to everyone, it worked so well. It was good we were there early because the boys played before the lines got too long. Josh may be small for his age but he can keep up with the best of them, nothing deters that kid. Size holds nothing over him!




This was a really pretty fountain that they had dies blue. It was really cool. We just had to get pictures by it. Nate took our picture and he didn't do too bad if I say so myself. The boys really wanted to throw rocks in there but we wouldn't let them. But that didn't stop Colton, he had Josh's spiderman water bottle and while we were getting our picture taken he threw it in the water. Josh saw it and started freaking out so we scooped it out and saved the day. While Colton was clueless that he had done anything wrong even with Josh telling him he was a "bad baby" over and over again.






This was awesome, they had parachuters jump from an airplane and it was right over our heads! There were 4 of them total! The boys loved the jumpers. They were so close to us and did I mention right over our heads. The last jumper that had a flag on him came right above us and just floated there for what seemed like forever. He was so close you could see his face but I was frantically trying to get his picture because it would have been an incredible picture but alas to mine and Danny's utter disappointment I didn't get it. I was zoomed in too close and all I got was like a big zoomed in shot of half his legs and I erased it from the camera. You can kind of tell in the second to last picture here that he's right above us and he seriously was so close. Oh, I did forget to mention that I didn't get the shot because I was in a panic mode worrying about my 3 babies because I felt like he was going to drop down right on us that's how close he was.




Just waiting for it to get dark and the fireworks to start.




The fireworks have begun and they are all in awe!

Amongst all the noise, Colton managed to fall asleep!

One moment Josh is mesmerized.......

the next he is out cold!

The fun has come to an end we managed to get them loaded in the stroller without waking them up.

We really had a good time as a family. And traffic was so smooth and easy. We had a good parking spot that wasn't too far away, it took us less than 5 minutes to get to the truck and once we were all loaded up we got off of base in less than 10 minutes and on the road. The military police were directing traffic so efficiently that it was amazing how smoothly it all went. The only thing we'll do differently next year is not show up so early, I think we'll leave at 5pm instead of 4pm. But other than that it was a very fun night!

Family Visit

Be prepared for a long post of pics. I don't have captions for each of them simple because there were too many. We had a lot of fun having all the family here visiting. It went by so stinking fast. We had 13 people here most of the week, 14 when Danny was around. I had a lot of fun having my house full of family. I hope everyone had fun as well. Our week was full of activities. Shopping at the Legends, visiting Cabela's, eating out at Culver's and Gates, visiting church site: Far West, Adam-Ondi-Ahmen, Indepence, & Liberty Jail. Some of us went to the Royal's game while some of us went shopping and to dinner. We all went to the Gladstone Water park, some of us went to the River Market to get stuff for our yummy BBQ. Of course there was lots of late nights just visiting and of course lots of food. Oh, and we can't forget lots of Wii: Mario Kart racing and hunting. It was a great week, we had been looking forward to this visit for a long time. It's sad that it's already over. We love having visitor's so you all are welcome back anytime you want to come. We miss living by each of you, it's hard being away from our family. Once Danny has us leave built up hopefully we can make it out there. For now here's some pics to look at from the vacation. (Oh, Jason or Tilisa do you have some cute pics that you could send this way and if there's any you want I can send them to you too or anyone else for that matter.)
Fritz Family Photo


Josh falls asleep during our BBQ


Shopping at Legends


Fun at Cabela's



Gladstone swimming Pool








Adam-Ondi-Ahmen


(Notice Jason's hand on Tilisa. Just like Grandpa Moore)








(Nate didn't want in our family shot)


Visiting at Far West

This is my Joy

I just love these little fellows. Their individual faces really do express their personalities. Nate is my super friendly, social boy. Josh is my little devil, he's just so stubborn, he does what he wants, he doesn't always go with mainstream things. And Colton is a little bit more sober, he's just a content little boy. He'll smile and laugh but it takes more work to get it out of him. I just loved this picture because it captured them so good. (I think Josh's smile looks like a little 'Whooville' kid, don't you think?)


This is the "make-a-goofy-face" picture. I think it's still cute.


Not much smiling going on here. But what do you think of our red door? We love it!


Two of momma's boys. Nathan took this picture of us, I think he did a pretty good job.


Nathan is laughing and rolling around in the grass.


I just love him! It boggles my mind how they can sit in this position let alone for so long too! (Josh refused to let me take his picture by himself so that's why there isn't one of him)

Here comes the Big yellow bus

Okay, so here's my baby getting off the bus from his first day of summer kindergarten, sniff, sniff. The schools out here offer a program for the new kindergartners to come to school, learn how to get around the school without all the other kids and get to know how everything works and learn at the same time. So, today was the first day and it goes all month, he goes from 9-2. This fall he'll go to school from 9-4, crazy huh! I signed him up to ride the bus so he isn't scared in the fall. But this morning I drove him to school because they were allowing the parents to come in and have a little overview of how things work and I wanted, correct that, needed to know how things will work. Well, as soon as we enter the cafeteria where everyone is waiting, the tears start coming. They were just automatic, it made me so sad to realize that my baby Nate is going to school and growing up. I had to fight the tears, and struggled through the whole half hour I was there. I think he is so ready to start school but it just made me sad to know he won't always be home with me. And it was really hard to think about someone else spending the whole day with him, actually it made me nervous because they won't be able to give him the attention that his own mom would. That is the hardest thing to swallow, just hoping that he is treated good and has a good experience while in school and does well. But at the end of the day, he said he had a good day, he liked his lunch, and of course he was so happy cause he got ice cream. I never got ice cream in school so how could it not be a good day!