on the independence day

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this, but I truly love the Fourth of July!  How much fun is it to spend the day outside looking forward to the spectacular glow and shimmer of fireworks after the sun goes down?!  My hope is that these pictures convince you of just how much fun it really is :)  

(and please do not allow me to forget that it is also wonderful because it is Gram's birthday!)

I've broken this post up into two sections (because we have a million pictures): 1. candid shots, 2. Photoshop fun shots.  These photos capture our day, and my dream is that the photos we take allow you all to feel as if you were right there with us in those moments we captured!

Classy... um, I think not!
Chloe has a slight issue with skirts, but they're so darn cute
that I don't have the heart to have her quit wearing them.

It wouldn't be me if I hadn't brought art supplies for the kids!

Working away on their masterpieces
Nice concentration, Chloe (notice her tongue sticking out- thankfully she doesn't just get it from me, Chad does this, too)

Ahh, the joys of forward growing hair

I call this the jump and throw

Grandpa brings this large water gun every year

Looks like Grandpa is about to get a bit of his own medicine!
Note the purple balloon flying towards him :)

Squirt!!

Danica's attempt at dodging Harley's balloon

Judging by the water on his shorts I'd say the grandkids got him pretty good!!

Owen chucking one out into the crowd

Gid was having such a ball

Nice form, Chad

Berkley & Gid were both contemplating a throw...
... Gid finally did gently throw it at Berkley :)

Alan took the kids over to fill squirt guns, while Chad tried to get him with a balloon
He came close (blue balloon above Owen's head), but almost hit Austin (running toward the fountain in the red shirt) instead!

Christine asked Chad if he'd get a few pictures of the grandchildren.
I wanted to share this shot because it certainly is not easy trying to get this many kids to cooperate!

This is one of the "silly" pictures we took
Hannah just kept sliding on her belly down the hill :)
(look for our favorite pictures below in the Photoshop fun section)

After what probably felt like hours of pictures to the kids, we were done.  Christine loudly announced to the kids to come and give her a hug.  This is how it began....

..... and it ended with Grandma on the ground covered in kids!
Landon leaned over to me during this time and said, "It's never a good idea to tell a bunch of 5-year-olds to 'go give Grandma a hug!'"

It was after the pictures that the kids got out a block of ice from the cooler to slide down the hill.
Landon was first.

Then Danica gave it a whirl
I love how much fun the others are having- look at those goofy happy faces following behind her :)

Deciding whose turn it is next...

A totally random shot, but I wanted to remember that on this day Berkley spent a ton of time playing with Colby and Hannah on their blanket

Berkley took my iPod over to take some pictures (none of which were anything special), but Colby helped her take this picture.  How sweet!
And honestly, could Berkley look any more like a child with her extremely messy face and disheveled hair??

Once the ice block lost the kids' interests rolling down the hill took suit

  

Hannah hung out with her dad on that blanket nearly all night!

*******************************************

I am in no way a professional photographer, and I certainly do not fully understand all of the effects and actions that can be taken on pictures in a Photoshop program, but I really enjoy doing my best to capture beautiful pictures and to take them and make them as professional-looking as I can.  Thanks to Pinterest I have even picked up a few pointers on making our pictures look more beautiful than our amazing Nikon already does.  So please don't think I know what I am doing or that I think I'm so totally awesome because I definitely am not, but I do love photography!  

Sweet Hannah with her big blue eyes
Most of these photographs were thanks to her and Berkley :)

Beautiful!

This is definitely one of
my favorites
She was saying "Hannah"
at the moment I snapped this one

My handsome husband ;)

Our two Taylor grandchildren photos (minus Amanda & Erika) are below!  They're pretty good, but not everyone is looking.  Though, I'm not sure that could ever happen with 15, count them 15 kids!!!!!!!!!!!

These next three I absolutely cannot take credit for (and neither can Photoshop)- Chad took these by slowing down the shutter speed.  I l.o.v.e the warm glow they created ( I think I need to learn this trick)!

There were these colorful petals
all over the park
(from another event, I would assume), and they
were perfect for these pictures)!

Beautiful!

And back to the Photoshopped images...

I adore this one, as well!

So, I thought I liked this one until now.  I think the colors are a bit  more distorted than I thought they looked the other day while editing... perhaps we'll revisit this one another time!

Thank you Melanie, Colby & Hannah for this beautiful, yet candid shot (that you, um, didn't even know I took... sorry!!)

Love this girlie!

This photo and the one above are the same (duh! obviously you guys aren't amatures...), but I put a flash effect on the first, which is very Instagram-esque (and, therefore, much to my liking)!

Hannah with her eyes so blue!  

What a fun picture, don't you think?!  And I love the glow, too!

The "Biggest Show in Idaho" usually does not disappoint, I mean it's obviously called that for a reason, right?!?  Well, I'm sad to say that this year just did not do it for me- it was short and, in my opinion, uneventful.  Here's to a better and perhaps bigger show next year...