Sadie is still talking about the horse she did one lap on at the rodeo:). It's name was Pua--flower in Hawaiian. Dallas's horse was named Patch and we forgot to ask Brenna's horse's name. Layla was a trooper even though it was sprinkling the whole time. We ended up staying home and watching awesome city fireworks from our back yard over the water. Brenna begged us to take her to bed, but we made her stay up. She was very happy she did. Nathan took out his green laser and was pointing out stars while we stayed outside for over an hour waiting for them. It was one of the best July 4ths I can remember. So happy Nathan had the day off.

This is after our early morning rodeo--we got rained out and could hardly see, but the girls each got to ride a pony a lap around the rink and we saw a few horse races. Also great that Nathan is off work! Hooray. Hopefully parade and fireworks tonight!

Layla is now 4 1/2 months--5 months on the 11th!! And has found her voice. It is hilarious. She squeals/screams all of the time. This is just a little clip of what it sounds like. I took this after changing a diaper--sorry for the diaper shot:).

The girls finished their gymnastics classes for the summer. I only signed them up for June but they learned a lot.

On another note: I am excited for the 4th of July. I really hope we get to see fireworks. We are planning on going to a rodeo in the morning up in Waimea. I have been reading a lot about our family history and found out that we have a great great great grand father that fought the British in the War of 1812--that is the same war where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the words of "The Star Spangled Banner."

Astrophotography

So here are a few of Nathan's latest pictures from Mauna Kea. He took the girls up last weekend to the freezing cold to test out his telescope so he could be ready to teach the scouts about astronomy.

Here are two amazing astrophotography pictures he took (he thinks they are not very good).

The 1st--A Nebula

The 2nd--Star Cluster

Def. of Nebula:s an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases. In these regions the formations of gas, dust, and other materials "clump" together to form larger masses, which attract further matter, and eventually will become massive enough to form stars. The remaining materials are then believed to form planets, and other planetary system objects.

Somewhere over the....

Rainbow!

Father's Day was filled with waffles and pineapple syrup--easy recipe: 1/2 cup cup sugar, 1/2 cup pineapple juice and 1/2 cup butter. Heat to boil. Yummy.

For dinner: pulled pork and coconut (haupia) chocolate pie from allrecipes.com.

We stayed home from church because Dallas woke up with no voice and very bad cough. We are headed to Oahu for her follow-up eye appt. Trying to figure out an activity for the day there--maybe Dole pineapple plantation??

Check out Dallas's hair do in rags--I thought I would never do this to my kids but it is so fun!

What does that spell?

She is trying to learn her name. She loves to make us laugh.

Ode to Joy

1st Memorized Song of Dallas. Since it is summer, she has had more time to practice...And since we are down a car, we have more time at home:)...

The beach was so crazy windy last week, but great for these kite sailors.

The girls are growing so so fast. Brenna gave her first talk in Primary this Sunday. I was so proud of her because she practiced so much and didn't need my help. It was about Jesus walking on the water. We got it from here. There is a clip at the bottom I made her say it for me. She had little trouble in the middle in the video:)