Oh Snap! It's Independence Day.

As I was browsing through my pictures from the 4th, I realized that a whole bunch of what we did I had gotten the original idea from Pinterest.  I am such a follower.

Anyway, we started off the morning with blueberry mini muffins (and chocolate chip ones for the haters) and bubbles.  How else would one kick off Independence Day?

We went swimming for lunch with dear old Aunt Stephanie (no pics of her lovleyness).  Well, we stayed at the pool for a bit, but since it was monsooning we just left and ate pizza at home and watched Independence Day.  Because what other movie is there?

We had some down time,

and then we got ourselves all festive for the day.  We tried hair chalking- and I have a few things to say about it.  Yes it works.  I'm not sure if it's just our type of hair or not, but our hair got really matted and gross feeling after doing it.  Anyone else ever done it?  I would love to compare results.  I'm thinking maybe if I had sprayed our hair with conditioning spray first...

I digress.

We got ourselves pretty.

Yes, even the boys joined in on the primping (that's the hazard of having a mom like me).

We then attempted taking a group photo.  It did not go well.

The kid seriously hates it when I take pictures of him.  

We went over to Aunt Whitney and Uncle Chris's for a BBQ.  And boy, did Whit and I have fun decorating for the fourth.

Yeah, we're pretty much awesome. 

We ate until we waddled, 

and then watched a most delightful performance of Firework by these two fancy ladies.

In the midst of their dancing frenzy, little Porter-Pot decided to push an ottoman across Whitney's very beautiful wood floor.  Oh, crap.

Have I mentioned how amazingly awesome my very forgiving sister is?

After we all recovered from the most traumatic experience, we went out and threw Snap-Its at each other.  'Cause that's how we roll.

S'MORES!

Once the sun set, we traipsed off to a local park in hopes of seeing the fireworks without having to deal with all of the people.  It didn't really work, but we had fun laying there and pretending to see them :)

And there you have it.  Our celebration summed up... well, it wasn't really summed.  It kinda took a long time to share it all. 

God bless America!

Piper is finally free from the stinky cast!

I have fallen behind in my blogging.  Summer days have this annoying tendency of slipping through my fingers, no matter how hard I try to grasp them.  So, going back a week or so, Pipes had an appointment at the orthopedic office to have more pics taken of her broken bones.  Which is awesome.  I made the appointment for a day that Orrin worked.  Which is not awesome.

It's not that I'm not up to the task of taking four kiddos to the doctors by myself.  I am.  It's just that if I am needed to actually listen to what the doctor is saying when I have said four kids with me... well, it doesn't work.

But I put on my big girl panties and did it anyway.  And, thanks to a container of Teddy Grahams and a promise of ice cream if there was good behavior, everything went pretty smoothly.

Here's Miss Pip modeling her brace for, what we hoped would be, the last time in the waiting room.

Back to x-ray, we went

And... the brace is off!

Let's just say it left and impression on her. Ha!  I'm a dork.

She grew some new bones where the fractures were-which happen to be through her growth plate- so we have to go get another x-ray  done in a year to be sure that all is growing as it should be.

And the other three sitting quietly.  No seriously- they all sat quietly.  Tender mercies!

There ya go!  She only has to wear the brace if she's doing something that might make her fall ("Like walking?" I might have sarcastically replied) for the next two weeks and then she's all healed up.

Let's give a big "hooray!" for modern medicine!

Also, our insurance deserves a loud round of applause.  Thanks for taking one for the team :)

22 hours stuck in the truck with the hubby? Heck ya!

Orrin and I ran away took a little four day trip to Utah a little bit ago.  Thank goodness for an awesome Mom and cousin who came down from Utah to watch our four.. err, energetic children (oh, and Aunt Whit helped out too).  Thanks for sending us pics of you guys!

Orrin and I sat off, pulling OP's friend's truck behind us.  Let's just say it took a long time to get up the canyons pulling that beast.  I entertained myself by browsing Pinterest when we had reception and taking nonsensical pictures when we didn't.

As we drove into the Salt Lake Valley, we beheld what seemed to be millions of peeps (I'm exaggerating for story purposes) paragliding off the Point of the Mountain. 

We spent the extended weekend with our best Utah amigos, Eli and Vanessa (and their sick bambino Peyton).

Thanks for letting us crash when you were in the middle of a move!  You guys rock.

For Merrill and Lopez posterity remembrance, here's what your fathers did when they had down time:

Nerds!  Vanessa and I, of course, sneaked out and did a little Utah-specific shopping.

OP and I did actually spend some time alone.  Mostly at movies.

No judging.  Babysitters are scarce and we rarely get to go to see any new shows.  So yeah, we were really excited to watch a few without the worry of hurrying home to relieve the poor person left with our kiddos.

We did a little bit of site-seeing.  Which means we drove around where we used to live and mumbled over the changes.

The best part for me?  I didn't have to cook once in four days!  Vacations do not get better than that.  We shared a couple of meals with my Dad (whom my mother ditched to watch the kiddos), ate at the famous Five Guys, and yes, we even got breakfast at Chik-Fil-A.

We even let an old friend join us at the movies (lucky you, Jonathon).

Yeah, when you're the third wheel in a bromance, you get stuck standing out in the movie theater parking lot while the boys drool over a motorcycle.

We left in the wee morning hours of the fourth day,

And hey- Orrin even let me drive for two hours (I prefer not driving, however).

Let this be a lesson to you: never fall asleep on a road trip when I'm in the car with you.  You will likely end up with an embarrassing photo of yourself on my blog :)

Getting some Orrin and Courtney time was pretty darn awesome (we had entire conversations without being interrupted by screaming babies!),

But, honestly, getting home to these little nerds was even better.

*these were their rewards for good behavior while we were gone: the older kids got Speedo goggles and the little one got Teddy Grahams.  We're keeping their expectations in gifts low*

We got to have our very own Nana Goat for two weeks!

Well- she's not really a goat.  She's my cousin, Savannah.  But Nana Goat just rolls off of the tongue, doesn't it?

My mom brought Nana down with her to help her watch my four crazy kiddos while OP and I took a quick vacation to Utah for a few days.

We dragged Nana everywhere with us. We forced her to swim with us.

Drove her to the mall and made her try on clothes (it was like having a life-sized barbie that could bend at the arms!).

We even made her buy some of them.

We had her perform for us.

And sleepover at our house.

(she totally rocked the wii dance games)

Adi and Piper pretty much adored the heck out of her.  They tried to subtly match their outfits to hers, do their hair just like her, and mimicked everything she said.

I personally enjoyed Savannah being around because she pretty much begged me to do her hair everyday ;)  But that made my daughters a bit less whiny when it was their turn to submit to my torture get their hair braided.

We miss you Savannah!  Hurry and move your booty down here so I can use you as a personal slave babysitter all of the time!

Why jumping around in the bathtub is never a good idea

Dear Mr. Porter: how many times has your Mom told you that the tub is for sitting, not for sliding, climbing, jumping, or running?

More than you can count, right?

I am now assuming that you know why.

It may not look all that bad, but that puppy was deep.

I, of course, wanted to rush him to the hospital to get sewn up.  Over reaction?  Heck ya.  But I tend to over react in any kind of medical or first aid situation.  Luckily, there happened to be an EMT and two nurses on hand to assess the situation while I busied myself taking photos and pretending that the blood pouring from my son's chin wasn't going to make me faint.

It was decided that some super glue and steri-strips were all that the cut needed.  Porter still needed some convincing (he wanted to slap a band-aid on it and pretend that nothing was wrong).

So the procedure was carried out on my Momma's kitchen table by Uncle Chris and Dad.

Five traumatizing minutes later, it was done.

And snuggles with Dad made everything better.

And now, a week later, this is all that's left of the horrible cut:

Yeah, it's a pretty crappy picture, but as you can see, it healed up nicely.

Porter has now joined the ranks of his Dad and Merrill uncles in having a pretty awesome chin scar.

We went to the mall because it's too hot to do anything else and swimming does get old.

I had to state that first because I generally avoid taking my brood to the mall.  It's way too stressful for this Momma bear. Luckily, I tricked coerced asked my lovely sister and her hubby to accompany us to help with crowd control.

Every Monday night Chandler Mall has a Fun Family Night with Radio Disney.  It really didn't live up to my personal expectations, but the kiddos had fun playing Red Light, Green Light (Piper won a t-shirt),

coloring pictures of skateboards, and getting some free goody bags (Mom enjoyed the free aspect of it all).

We then did a little bit of window shopping at the Disney store.  I think we were there for an hour.

We also visited the Lego store (there's a whole store dedicated to LEGOS!) and munched on some Wetzel's Pretzels.

Also, I caught this little moment between the two greatest rivals in the Merrill Family (Adi & PG):

Oh, and this moment:

Aunt Whit sharing the last of her cinnamon-sugar goodness from the bottom her pretzel bites bag.

Please, if anyone out there has any ideas of how to entertain a gaggle of children in this hot desert weather, share them with me!