Independence Day

Most of you know that the Fourth of July is one of my favorite Holidays and that this country means a lot to me. I grew up in a military family and spent most of my childhood over seas. I've seen and experienced first hand the sacrifices that many have made for this wonderful country and our freedoms. My brother is also about to leave for a 1-year deployment. He leaves his wife and 2 kids to serve. How fitting that this was our last holiday with him before he leaves. I wish that I had gotten a picture with him :( Anyway, here is what we did for our Independence Day celebration:

THE PARADE:

Every year we go to the N. Ogden Parade and sit in the same place with the same people...why change a good thing :)

This is some of the Howe gang

The girls sitting and enjoying the parade. I made the chairs from PVC pipe. Not kidding when I say I love PVC...I've made LOTS of things using it. They only sat for a few minutes before they were up catching candy again.

Mckay had one of the best seats in the house. He would sit in his chair and Stratton would lift him high above his head.

If any of you know Piper, you know how much she LOVES animals and goes Crazy when she see's them. She loved the horses and wanted to chase after them.

Too bad she is NOT in love with getting her picture taken. When she is grown and wants to know why she has no pictures of herself when she was a little kid, I will show her this picture.

So here is a picture without the grump! They made me step in and take her place since we were wanting an all stripes thing.

After the parade we went to "Cherry Days" where I pretty much saw everyone I know from Weber high. haha. Ok, not everyone, but there were tons of old high school buddies there. The kids played on the bouncy houses and we walked around and looked at all the booths. Then we went to my parents house and swam in the pool all day, had a BBQ, played games and then set off lots of fireworks. I don't know why I don't have pictures of it :( Kinda sad about that.

I did take a couple pictures of the kids and their sparklers. Ky was such a little trooper playing with the sparklers since she was burned by a stray firework about 2 minutes before that picture. She was the only kid actually sitting where we told her to and being good and she is the one that got burnt. Oops. Maybe listening to your parents isnt always a good thing. haha. It was nothing serious, just a few burns under her arm.

Let me tell you though, 9 kids running around with sparklers is a pretty scary thing! They had a lot of fun though, and no one lost an eye.

After some fireworks, sparklers, and black snakes we went to see the firework show at my parents high school. They must have been having some technical issues because there was no grand finale and they had big breaks in between. It was still a lot of fun to lay on a blanket and watch though.

except Pip that is. She is TERRIFIED of fireworks and wanted me to hold her the whole time with her eyes covered.

Hope you all had a WONDERFUL 4th of July, I know we sure did!