A pet!

We're not exactly pet people.  The thought of taking care of, cleaning up after, and worrying about another creature (beyond the two kiddos we already have) has no appeal for me.  Thankfully, Tyler is afraid of dogs and has never asked for one.  However, we did think that having some kind of pet would be a good thing.  After looking at a few lizards and some hermit crabs, the boys settled on a fish.  John and I were good with that, knowing that a pet fish is only one step up from a house plant and we've managed to keep a few of those alive.

And so off to Pet Smart we went.  First we had to get the tank and the water ready.  Here are the boys selecting just the right rock feature for our pet.

 Once the water was ready and tested, it was time to choose a few fish.  Robby selected an orange fish and I'll give you one guess as to what Robby named him.  That's right: Nemo.  If you're three years old there is only one pet fish name.

 A week or so after we got Nemo, Tyler got to choose  another fish.  He decided instead of getting another medium fish, he would go with a school of very small fish.  He named them Phinneas, Ferb, Perry, and Rainbow (???).

Big day at the Carson home.

Here's Robby showing Nemo one of his favorite toys.  Good to see our children connecting so well with their new pet ;)

And now poor John spends about half an hour each evening changing out the water because the Nitrate levels are too high and it will take a few weeks to level out.  What a good sport- glad it's not a dog!

Fourth of July

Our Fourth of July celebrations were low key but fun this year.  We started with red, white and blue yogurt parfaits that we ate almost every day for snacks.  This was totally John's idea.  I love that he thinks of fun things like this for us to enjoy together.

On the 3rd we went to the water park and enjoyed a relaxing day together and then went to watch the fireworks.  In our area most of the big firework shows are on the 3rd of July.  That works great for us because then on the 4th of July we can stay home and have a barbecue with family or friends.

 And that's just what we did.  On the 4th of July we went to a movie and then had a yummy barbecue with John's brother and his family.  I wish I had taken pictures of the boys having a great time with their cousins out in their kiddie pool.  They were pretty funny.  After dinner, we came home and lit a few of the fireworks we had purchased.  We had to light them in our backyard because we were pretty sure they weren't legal in our area-oops.

This video cracks me up because the first one we lit off was just a bit too close for comfort.  So much for safety first.  After that, Robby was a bit spooked every time we lit one off even after we moved them back a bit.

Good times.  And the best part was that it wasn't like a million degrees this year like it was last year!