Cloud 9...Times Two: July 4th Celebrations

Independence Day was pretty fun this year. Our entire family ventured out to the parade early this morning and were lucky enough to get up-front seats for all eleven of us at our favorite spot along the parade route. The kids were so excited to see all of the excitement. Anna must have danced and clapped through three-quarters of the parade and she LOVED seeing the horses and had a particular fascination for the vintage cars with their odd horns as well as the drums in the school marching bands. And the older boys got so excited when "soldiers" or motorcycles or anything with loud sounds came by. Anna and Braden loved to get up and dance together when the school marching bands went by, too.

Our local parade and July 4th festivities has been rated one of the top ten best in the nation. This year they really outdid themselves. It was TWO HOURS long and there were 100 floats.

Anna loved the old cars.

Ian's attention was taken by the "soldiers".

Following the parade, Mark grilled tasty burgers and hot dogs and the entire crew enjoyed a potluck lunch indoors because the temperature was over 100 degrees...again. After naps Ian enjoyed playing in the paddling pool and attempting the new slip-n-slide. He didn't really have the momentum to go the length of the slide but he tried. I had to get my bathing suit on and show him how it was done...no photos taken of that sad sight, thank goodness! Ian, Mark and I enjoyed being silly together in the yard. When Anna woke up she decided to play in the pool for a bit and then blow bubbles.

All of the kids enjoyed the huge group
of Boy Scouts holding up an American flag
that spanned the width of the four-lane road.

By mid-day the kids were very ready for a nap.

Ian's downhill attempt...on his bottom.

The fireworks shows throughout our state have been in jeopardy due to a burn ban because of high temperatures and drought conditions. But it was safe enough to have the show and we got to enjoy it from the comfort of our air conditioned sunroom. Unfortunately, a large Elm tree in our backyard died and we had it removed last week. We lost a lot of shade and green in our yard but the positive of that is now we have a huge clearing in the back where we can see the fireworks show without any obstructions. We've been able to watch the show from our backyard in years' past but the trees have blocked the view a bit. Not this year. We had a clear view of the entire show. We promised to wake Ian up for the fireworks and he loved it. We didn't wake Anna and thankfully she slept through it all and slept in until 8:30 the next morning. It was a good holiday weekend!