More often than not, a holiday arrives and we find ourselves without any fun plans to do to celebrate. This year, we decided we'd host a 4th of July party ourselves with the selfish intent to have something fun to do!

We invited a bunch of friends and their families over for a cookout and fun time in our back yard. We had an absolute blast and truly enjoyed everyone how made it out to celebrate Independence Day with us. No better way to celebrate our Nation's birthday than with good food, great friends, water, and fireworks!

Here are a few of the best images of the day... special thanks to Jen Bane for her permission to use her images from the day.

We set up the backyard with a cool new pool and the slip-n-slide Jackson got for his birthday. We also set up badminton and horseshoes for some friendly competition.

Here's a good pic of our water set up.
















This is my favorite pic of Jackson from the whole day!





















The boys enjoying the pool. Left to right - Jackson A, Jackson G, Matt, and Luke.

















Kids and grown-ups having a good time.














Lining up to blast off Buzz Lightyear (another one of Jack's bday presents put to good use). Great facilitation, Dad!














Cutie Pie, Isabella!




















Carrie. She really is this fun, lol!
















Jon, Horseshoe King




















Jeff in the background playing horseshoes and Brad being silly :)




















The boys at the grill... talking couponing. No lie!














Yum!














Fireworks time!!






























This is my fav image from the entire night. (Jen is awesome!)














Jeff "cleaning up" LOL!













We had a great holiday... lots of yummy food and the best company. Thanks to everyone who came out!!