4th of July

The 4th of July is past us now but I'm getting caught up on blogging and I can't leave out one of my favorite holidays! I love the 4th of July!

We attended our local town parade. It was AWESOME!!!

Cam's Mom and Dad joined us for the parade. We lined up an hour early to get a good spot on the street. We had coffee and treats from Grandma (suckers) while we waited for it to start. One of my favorite things about the parade and the 4th is seeing all the red/white/blue. Love!! Such a show of patriotism. And the matchy/matchy thing...well, you know I love that! It's my dream some day to have a beach house and decorate it in red/white/blue. Dream big!

Sweetie brothers.

 Grandpa giving the kids the BIG BOUNCE. They love it! Grandpa's back? Probably not.

My girl and I.

BG is notorious for NOT wanting his photo taken....but I got this sort of okay one of him and his pre-parade sucker. It's called the pre-parade sucker because he ate about 5 more during the parade.

The parade was so good! It started off with some Navy sailors rocking out in the back of a truck. I mean ROCKING! They were a rock band and were jammin' out. It was so fun! The lead singer was a woman and she was belting it out. Loved it!

There were lots of Veterans. Riding in classic cars, and on floats, and in military vehicles and boats on trailers. So humbling to see them. My sweet hubby always shouts out to them and tells them thank you for our freedom. It's touching to see their response. Some nod, some put their hand over their heart, many salute, they all say you're welcome.

This year they had something new in the parade. There were about 25 huge banners with the photographs of servicemen and women from our area that have been killed in the current wars. Very sad to see the pictures. The banners had the dates of birth and death and the local town the person was from. So young. Such sacrifice.

Some of my other favorite things from the parade....stilt walkers were amazing to watch, a young guy performing tricks on a bicycle (the mom in me was wincing and watching through squinted eyes....and I had to laugh when more than one of my kids commented that he wasn't wearing a helmet!), the Rodeo Queens on horses (I thought Sis would faint. She LOVES horses and she loves princesses. She yelled, "Mommy, it's Barbie on a horse!"), And I LOVE marching bands!! There were such great bands and a couple groups of drill teams...one with a sassy head snapping march. Again Sis was in LOVE. Also, the Chinese dancers with the dragon...very cool. So much fun!! And the streamers shot out of a horn by some circus performers. Wow!!

After the parade we headed to our friend's house for a delicious BBQ. Fun with friends in the sun. The kids ran and ran and ran. We opted to go home before fireworks this year since Cam had to get up at 5:30 the next day for work. Boo!

We had the kids in bed by 8:15. I laid in bed and read and then enjoyed an amazing fireworks display (while Cam slept). I could see across the water to the islands and watch everyone's show. I did however fall asleep before our local big show at 10:20. Oh, well...it was a full fun day. Thank you to the  service members past and present who made it possible!! God bless YOU!