Fourth of July Festivities

We were exited that we were able to celebrate our nation's birthday with the traditional parade and fireworks this year. Here are the photos of our day. 

The girls waiting for the parade to start. 

The girls and their friends watching the parade

Their were 60 parade entries that ranged from bikes to 4-wheelers that crawled up each others tires to typical floats and balloons to bag pipe players, jugglers on stilts, violins in marching bands, Native American dancers, line dancers, rhymthic gymnast, and even Thai dragons.

So more about the Thai dragons. Their float stopped in front of us and actually wanted to interact with those watching. They picked Rachel. This is Rachel crying and trying to get away from the dragon. She was so afraid. I even tried pointing out that there was a person inside but she was not hearing it. If she didn't have a back on that chair she would have been gone! But she couldn't get away and it took the people inside a while to realize that they were terrorizing her to stop. Someone did come out and apologize to her and us and they felt so bad. Oh well we're still chuckling over it and it's a moment I don't know if we'll ever forget.

After the parade we all went home for a nice nap and woke up to rain. So much for grilling, so instead we used the griddle to cook up some delicious carne asada, chorizo and italian sausage. The girls thought it'd be fun to play in the rain with their umbrellas (they don't get too many chances to use them). 

 It stopped raining in time to enjoy my favorite part- fireworks! This is Ashley's first time going and seeing fireworks, so we didn't want to miss it. We packed the cooler and brought chips with Mike's homemade guacamole. (Are you noticing a mexican food theme on our American holiday? I did) Meet are friends near a park and watched the fireworks explode, what felt like, right over top of us.

The kids entertaining themselves with glow bracelets turned swords while waiting for the fireworks

waiting in their princess chairs

Rachel sat with her friend and loved every minute of the show

Ashley watched the first firework and then turned around ready to cry because of how loud it was she spent the rest of the night cuddled up with Daddy.