4th of July

Every Fourth of July, we go to my husband's hometown to take part in all of the Independence Day celebrations.  Pancake breakfasts, parades, friends, barbecues and fireworks make the day extra special.  Everyone comes back home on the Fourth of July, and we reconnect with old friends every year.  It's one of my favorite times of the year on the mountain.

Here our kids are waiting patiently for the start of the parade.

This is Rosie.  She's a princess that my kids got to dog sit for waaayyy too much money.  She's ready for the parade too!

Here she decides to have a Popsicle to make the parade a little bit more enjoyable.

There's my baby waiting for floats to throw out candy to her. There was a lot of competition for candy this year and she only came out with 4 pieces by the end of the parade.  Her daddy was trying to show her how to throw an elbow to get more candy, but she's just too darn nice.  Lucky for her, she has a big brother and sister that are a little more experienced at candy grabbing, and they shared their loot with her.

Here's a Model A that a family friend restored and drove in the parade.  It's gorgeous inside and out!

For a small town parade, this float was amazing.  Abe Lincoln would sit down to go under the power lines, and then stand up again.  The theme of this float was "Stand Up for the Constitution."  Very Clever.

After the parade we had a barbecue, went to the lake for the afternoon, back to the house for dinner and fireworks, and then drove home.  We pulled into the driveway at 11:30pm, and carried the kids to their beds.  They were covered in sunscreen, bug spray, popsicle juice, frosting, and ketchup, but they slept like little angels until the next morning when we gave them all a good scrubbing. We had yet another memorable 4th of July reflect back on.