Happy 4th of July

We enjoyed a great (busy) 4th of July weekend.















The festivities began Friday evening at our city's parade--aka our city's CANDY-FEST!!
Aren't my men HANDSOME!!!!!














Sometimes it is STINKING HOT for the parade. Fortunately Abe found us a great spot with a bit of shade. To get good seats for the parade we put our chairs out about four days before the parade. Almost the entire front row sidewalk of the parade route is filled up days before the parade. We take our parades seriously in these parts.








For the kids, the purpose of the parade is singular-- GET CANDY. Knock other children out of the way and dive into the middle of the road (even though a big float will run you over), scratch your fingers up on the asphalt to get a tootsie roll. Blessed day if you should be lucky enough to catch a free key chain or the grand-daddy prize of them all--THE T-SHIRT!!! Never mind that the parade participants are throwing so much salt-water taffy into the crowd that you actually get repeatedly pelted in the head. It's all worth it for a chance at a free piece of double bubble. The only injustice of it is that Abe and I can charge "Mom Tax" or "Dad Tax", which means we can tax the children for candy we want but were too lazy to get up from our chair to get ourselves. I know it is totally unfair- and on Independence Day at that, but TOUGH!
Cannon and his cousin, Brigham. I don't know if it comes through on the picture, but there is something very similar about these two little guys. I guess it shouldn't be too shocking-- they are cousins after all. We hope they will be good buddies as they grow up.









The morning of the 4th started with "Diving for Dollars" at the local swimming pool. The city rents out the pool for anyone to come swim for free and there are fun events for several hours. For Diving for Dollars they have certain age groups at a time get in the water and collect coinage spread on the bottom of the pool. Next to the candy from the parade this is a highlight of the 4th of July. Sadly, the kids collected less than in years past--it must be the economy.
Faith spent almost the whole five minutes trying for this one dime.


Sadly she was not successful because she just did not want to put her face and head in. Abe ended up throwing a couple of dimes on the steps so she could reach something.













The girls fared better, but no one broke the $2 mark. Maybe next year. Sorry, no pictures of Clark, but he did participate in the 9-11 yr olds.













We went up to the Capitol for a "Tea Party". It was very interesting and I'm still mulling over what I thought of it all. I am glad that we went and it is remarkable that we could safely go and freely, peacefully gather to protest. This country has it's problems, but it's still THE BEST in the world.










Clark wrote his own protest sign.




















When we got home a neighbor put on an impromptu magic show for the neighborhood kids. I was reading a book inside and I was hearing shrieks of laughter and cheering.












And what 4th of July celebration would be complete without a fantastic fireworks show. Our city puts on a huge show we like to go to the park to watch.