Family of 3 on the 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July this year as a family of three.  It was a bit weird.  Josh is at Cross Country Camp in Sun Valley, and Chelsea is at BYU.  Emma is the only child at home for the week.

We planned to do our annual Boise bike ride with our friends, the Hammer and Bell families.  This year, we decided to get dinner at Westside Drive-In.  You gotta go to Westside when you come to Boise.  It's been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  We mostly go to Westside for their fantastic shakes.  We have tried many combinations, and one of our all time favorites is the peanut butter chocolate shake.  Mmmmm.

We took our food to Veteran's Memorial Park and had a picnic.

Look how much this little kiddo, Kohen, has grown since the last 4th of July!

Emma and I had classic corn dogs and the yummy Westside tots.

Matt felt the need to be more adventurous and try one of their specials of the day... The Red, White, and Bleu Burger.  It wasn't so good.  The bleu cheese crumbles and the buffalo sauce was not a good idea.  Sorry Chef Lou.

We began our awesome bike ride and rode 7 miles to Powell's Sweet Shoppe.  Guess what I got again?  Black licorice, you betcha!  Emma filled a giant tube full of different flavored sugars... like a Pixie Stick.

Onto Anne Morrison Park we went, where the big July 4th celebration was about to take place.  We rode the 5 miles there and found us a nice, grassy spot (right by the bridge for a quick exit) among the thousands of people that were beginning to gather there.

The kids played games together, ate their candy, and even had a magician come over and perform for them.

Oh, yeah.  And Joel and Natalie made out on the blanket next to us.  Ha Ha!  Just Kidding!

I especially enjoyed watching Kohen run around on his tether/leash/bungee cord whatever.  He didn't cry or complain.  He would run out as far as it would take him and then bounce back a little.  Too funny and entertaining.  The neighboring people got a kick out of that cutie pa-tootie!

This outing was not only fun because we were with friends, riding bikes, eating junk food and watching fireworks, but it was also full of obstacles!

1- Chloe, due to wearing flip flops, split her toe nails... two different times!  A bit of a bloody mess.

2- Joel's bike tube popped after leaving Powell's and he and Natalie wound up  slowly making their way to the fireworks.  Matt rode all the way back to the Suburban to get the extra inner tube and pump.

3-Then Joel, as he was pumping air into the NEW tube, popped that one, too!  Scared everyone around us!  He left before the fireworks were over to push his bike back to the car.

4- Some weirdo biker asked to follow Joel along the greenbelt because Joel had on a light.  The guy rode way too closely for Joel to feel comfortable, and then the guy wound up following him off the greenbelt all the way to Veteran's parking lot.  Joel wasn't too sure of what this guy's intentions were.  Freaky.

5- After quickly as possible getting across the bridge to the other side of the river, the rest of us began navigating through the hoards of walkers and bikers.  We slowly rode along in a line with our headlamps on.  Kris had to slam on her brakes to avoid hitting someone... but she used her front brakes and found herself on the ground a little scraped up and shaken up.  Upon standing, she began to feel light-headed and nauseated.  If you know sweet Kris, you know that this isn't uncommon.  She just needed a little time to recover.  As she layed there on the side of the path in the grass, people were gauking and asking if everything was ok.  Meanwhile, her six year old son Daxton was crying (more like wailing) his little eyes out thinking his mom was about to die.  Her husband, Shane, didn't know that this was happening since he was up ahead and continued to ride on.  Natalie, Chloe, and Daxton stayed behind with Kris (now laying on a bench) while Hailey, Emma, Matt and I rode on to get the cars.

6- As the four of us were riding, Matt sees the base of a tree, off to the side of the greenbelt, on fire.  Smoldering is a better word.  There might have been some flame, but Matt had already poured the rest of his water out of his camelback on it by the time I got there.  Then we poured mine on it.  It looked like it would be ok, so we left it because we were in a bit of a hurry to get back to help poor Kris!

So there you have it.  Our 4th of July in a nut shell (what the heck does that really mean?... in a nut shell?)