The Fourth of July

 Our neighborhood has a parade on the fourth.  Its just a little one with the rich old folks driving around their fancy cars, decorated with red, white and blue.  There are kids on bikes with patriotic streamers or balloons.  Our three big kids were out representing the swim team.  And there is candy.  Its kind of a fun way to start the day.  It is followed by a cook out at the pool.

This year our bestest friends, the VerHoefs, joined us.  We love them.  Their oldest, Ky, is missing from this photo.  I think he was putting up flags with the scouts or something.  Myah and Grace have become very close friends.  Little Reese, with Miles and Lila above, is a joy.  Lila adores her.  Kora and Addie get along very well, but she also has a lot of fun with Andre.  Little Kolby and Lila are only 2 weeks apart in age and they have a super cute connection that I don't remember seeing in kids so young.  Although they may occasionally punch each other in the face, they love to play together, they love to hug and kiss each other, and they are each other's greatest protectors.  Last week in nursery, there was some trauma and the one leader whom Lila loves was unavailable to hold her so Kolby took over and held her hand and led her around, apparently, for nearly 2 hours to keep her from crying.   Today in church they were sitting on the opposite side of the chapel.  At one point Lila heard Kolby crying (I think he hit his head or something).  She jumped off my lap to run to him.  I stopped her.  "Kolby!  Kolby!  Tell Kolby sorry.  Ok Kolby!"  Since I wouldn't let her disrupt by running so far and yelling herself, she completely melted down and Jason had to take her out.

These are the cute parents, Wes and Sarah.  Sarah has become my best friend here.  Finding her has been a huge blessing in my life.  We see each other pretty much every day and miss each other when we don't.  I trust her and understand her and she's the same.  Its so cool to find a soul sister.  It doesn't happen very often.  And its handy that we both went on Spanish speaking missions because when we need to discuss stuff about our kids and they're there, we can just...speak in Spanish!  I'm sure its annoying.  Because sometimes we also talk about our husbands or people at the gym.  But its fun.  We are so much alike.  Except that she is only about 5'2" or something.   Awhile back her husband said that we were just like from the movie Twins.  She said, "Yes!  Exactly!"  But then crinkled her nose and was like..."Wait a minute...that means I have to be Danny DeVito."  Oh, and the other thing is that we both do crazy weird energy work stuff and learn together and have seen lots of miracles happen.  I'm really happy to have a friend.

 Now a note about these two.  They are at such a fun age where they are really liking to play with each other in coordinated play efforts.  I love it!  The other day I said, "Miles, I love how nicely you're playing with Lila."   He shrugged and said, "Yeah, she's my friend."   The same evening I decided to test again while they were playing.  "Hey Miles," I said, "I see you're playing so nicely with Lila again.  Are you guys friends?"  "Yep!" he said, eyebrows raised just like below, "She's my BEST friend."  I don't think I've felt much more content than after hearing that.  I love these two little babies of mine.
 "I can only thank God it was not too late..."