Fourth of July

 This year we were blessed with lots of family being in town to celebrate and have fun together.  Grandma and Grandpa and Laurel, Ben and Bella arrived Saturday night July 2 and Aunt Kelly and her friend Nancy arrived that morning. It has been extremely hot here so we spent lots of time inside hanging out during the day and lots of time outside when the sun went down.  On the morning of July 4 the three younger kids dressed up and walked in the parade that our town has every year.  The last time we did this was a few years ago so it was fun to do it again...I have lots of memories of the older kids being in Crystal Lake's kids parade so it is fun to continue the tradition with Merideth and Makenna.  It was steamy hot by 9 AM so the grandparents stayed home. Coulter had to work but Maddie, Laurel, Bill and I were there to see the kids ride by...Merideth is so grown up now. She did not want to us to be right her side during the parade..she wanted to be on her own looking for us at the end.  We let her go on her own but I made sure to keep up with on the sidewalk.  Maddie ended up helping another family carry some items they had since they could not do it on their own with two small dogs that needed to be carried due to the heat.  Once we got to the end of the parade route there were all kinds of booths with water and food and fun things for the kids to do.  We did not last long due to the heat (several kids passed out with heat stroke and the ambulances had to be called!)but we were there long enough to get faces painted and some free hot dogs.  It was hot but worth it...the bikes still look cute sitting in the garage.

 We went to watch fireworks as a group.  A friend had given me a tip about a great place to park our car away from the crazy traffic and the crowds...it was a perfect spot high up on a hill just behind the place that the fireworks were being shot off.. We took our cars over there around 4 to park them and we were suprised that there were already several cars in spots.  It worked out great though since we just piled in a few cars and showed up  about an hour before the show started.  The boys watched from the top of Lucas's car while the rest of us camped out in front of our cars.  The show was great and we were thrilled to be able to be so close to them.  Overall, it was a perfect family fun filled day!