Is this the cutest little 3 week old baby ever? Logan celebrated his first 4th of July and basically slept the through the whole thing! Luckily he looked pretty cute, even if he was mostly sleeping, in his sweet little Americania outfit.
Our day started by a big breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Ritchie's house with all of our cousins. We then left to go on what has now become our annual 4th of July hike to Stewart Falls. Most of you know the shortcut way we like to go, and luckily we were able to get through the new gate (with a guessing the code) to the start of our hike.
We went with Ryan and Jessica's family along with my friend Susan. It took us awhile to get everyone situated and Logan in his baby Bjorn, but finally we were on our way! This was the first time that no one else was on the same trail we were on, and we thought we had the mountain to ourselves! Then, about 5 minutes into the hike we heard a loud growl. We all stopped and the kids got quiet, and then we heard it even louder again. It was coming from the bushes right ahead of us! It was obviously a bear. So, we all turned around and quietly and quickly made our way back to the car. The boys haven't stopped talking about it since! It really scared us, especially with the boy who was attacked just a couple of weeks ago on the other side of the mountain.
We were still determined to get a hike in. So we went to the beginning of the Timp hike and started up the trail to the first waterfall. I remembered it being "really close" from last summer when Paul and I hiked this trail. But with nine kids and an extremely hot day, it took quite awhile. The kids where great though, we had plenty of water and Logan slept the whole time.
The waterfall was very refreshing and the boys had fun cooling off for a bit. Luckily we saw no wildlife that seemed dangerous, other than a little squirrel who was determined to help us eat our picnic.
After our hike, we went home and got all cleaned up and then went to a BBQ at Ryan and Jessica's. Then, after days and days of waiting, Tanner got to finally do fireworks! Can you tell from this picture that he was excited? We finished our amazing Costco fireworks just in time to sit on the backporch and watch the fireworks from Memorial Hill with the boys.
Needless to say we all slept great that night, well all except for Logan...
As you see, Tanner was extremely excited about going on the Polar Express and meeting Santa. Thanks to the Danleys, we were able to go on the train's first Polar Express ride this season for free! It was so fun and now after doing it, I can say I would pay to go on it again. It was just like the book, we had hot chocolate and warm cookies, we sang Christmas carols, and yes, we even picked up Santa at the North Pole. 
Here is one of the elves named Pop Tart. She seemed overly fond of Bryson and made an effort to talk to him as much as possible. I'm not quite sure what I think of that. But, what can I say, he is hot stuff (like his Dad)!
This is the first year Mckay didn't scream when he saw Santa. However, he was very cautious of the man with the beard. Mckay knew he needed to tell him he wanted "a racetrack with cars that crash into each other". I was proud of Mckay for being so brave and talking to Santa.
Logan on the other hand wasn't to excited to meet the scary looking man and Tanner couldn't believe he was actually meeting Santa!
Garrett told me that there is no way this was the real Santa, but he enjoyed the whole experience like the rest of us and had fun reading the Polar Express book as we traveled. We finished the night of right with a trip to Dairy Keen. 
