Fourth of July

This year marked our Family's 10th Fourth of July in Richfield. There is no where in the world like Richfield on the Fourth of July. We were especially excited to go to Richfield because we hadn't seen grandma and grandpa in awhile. They just finished the remodeling of their house, and it looks gorgeous. We started with an annual trip to the lake. Chris and I were itching to go water skiing. It had been way too long. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we are still young (which is getting harder and harder to do). It was hard to follow Parker, Michael, and Kaitlin, but we managed. This was the first time ever I was able to get up on a wake board (pretty sad). The girls had a blast tubing. Ella wouldn't get off the tube. The next day we started with Emma's 1 mile run. She did awesome, even with a side ache that "hurt so bad". We are proud of her for even trying. She crossed the finish line with her cousin, David. Chris and I tried to do the 5K. I still don't understand how I can run 3 to 4 times a week and Chris runs 3 to 4 times a year and he kills me. I don't get it. I was determined to stay with him. We finished in our record time, which I'd rather not publish:) We rushed to the parade, which was once again filled with lots and lots of candy and advertisements. The kids still love it. We did our annual Christensen shoe shopping (thanks to Tristan). Lara and I are always faced with the problem of finding our size. It pays to have small feet. Our fireworks were pretty grand (no thanks to my whippy fireworks). The brothers, I mean little boys, tried to blow things up again, not to much avail. We tried our snakes again, which Ella loved. I still can't get over how huge the fireworks are in Richfield. you can sit on your front porch and see a real firework show on every street. Unfortuneately we all got the flu the next day, which we are still trying to get over. Ella still thinks that the fireworks made her sick. Some of our greatest memories as a family happen in the small town of Richfield!