Fourth of July

We enjoyed our Fourth of July.  Holidays off are a rarity for Brandon, unless they are on the weekend, so we tried to cram stuff in during the morning before he had to head to work.  So we made a lunch, packed up the van, picked up Brandon's sister, who is staying at their grandparents house for the summer, and headed to the parade.

 Bradley was really excited when they handed out flags.  It kept him in the stroller for a bit.

 The gangs all here, Bradley's in the back, and the kids were excited to dress in red, white, or blue.  Every year I think about making cute shirts and then I don't.

 Bradley's first sucker.  He loved it.

I let Caitlyn look at some hairstyles and she picked this star one.  It helps that she sits still a lot better than she used to.

 The firefighters pipes and drums stopped in front of us and did this really cool ceremony.  They played "Amazing Grace" and gave a flag to a lady, we don't know why.  But it was really awesome to see.

 William giving Charlie the Chukar hi five.

 The Granite River Ranch had painted horses.  Very cool painted horses.

I had to include a picture of this helicopter.  Why you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  This helicopter has a siren.  When we first heard the siren we couldn't figure out where it was coming from.  None of the vehicles on the street at the time had sirens.  Then we noticed the helicopter.  I don't know why a helicopter would need a siren, but there you have it.

Because Brandon had to work I took the kids up to my mom and dad's.  I took Haley also.  Bradley napped for the first little bit but the other kids played.  Mom got out her slip 'n slide and her little pool.

 Slip 'n slide ready.

 So fun at the end.  William got the hang of it faster than the others, but I did have to tell him not to run on the slip 'n slide.

 Pure joy.

 Her pretend big splash.

 My dad set up the trampoline, the kids were very excited.

 Bradley did eventually wake up, and he was very happy to get in the water.

 Making his escape.  He got hung up for awhile, but he did eventually make it out of the pool.  Why would he want to get out?

 Because he wanted to be on the slip 'n slide, he was fascinated with the water coming out of the side.

 Such a cute boy.

Look at the water droplets.  Brandon got a new camera for Father's day/birthday and we are impressed with quality of the pictures.
We didn't do fireworks on the fourth.  We lit some the Saturday before with Brandon's folks when they dropped Haley off.  There is absolutely no way I would ever attempt to take the kids to the river for the big fireworks by myself, but I did let the older kids stay up and we walked down the street where we could see some of the big fireworks.  We watched some of them on the news too.  I am so grateful for the country that we live in and the freedoms we enjoy.  God Bless America.