Independence Day

Had a fun celebration of Independence Day. Went to the fireworks in our town July 3rd with the family. The whole crew was there...Brandon and Stefanie, Grammy and PaPa, and all five of us. I have to admit I was a little worried about how it would go, especially since we went so early (3 hours)to get seats and hang out. The boys ended up having a blast running around and beating each other up (boys will be boys).
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Here is Elise celebrating her first Fourth of July with Stefanie ( Uncle Brandon's girlfriend). Of course she was dressed up for the festivities:-)

Ethan checking out the fireworks with Grammy.


Little Lady watching the fireworks with her daddy. You can see her eyes were HUGE. She didn't quite know what to think of everything. Good thing I took a picture towards the beginning, because she didn't last long. Daddy ended up walking her around the parking lot for the majority of the fireworks:-(


Drew getting a little help from PaPa (covering his ears).


The next morning (July 4th) we went to a steam-engine parade in our town. It's the largest (and probably only one!) in the nation. Needless to say the engines are "too loud" in the words of Drew Drew. We even came prepared with ear plugs! Ethan is showing his off...


Drew didn't take to the steam engines so well. In fact Ryan and I have never seen him more frightened of something:-) We kept telling him they were like Thomas the engine, but he saw no resemblence!


Ryan ended up taking Drew to the car until the engines had all passed by, and the "normal" floats came. Then both boys had a blast as candy was thrown to them! I love this picture of Drew blowing his "twirly flag".


Went to the lake and hung out on the boat all afternoon. The plan was to stay for fireworks on the lake, but by 8:30 we were completely exhausted from staying up late with the kids the night before. So we headed home and everyone showered (the boys new favorite thing to do). As we were getting the boys dressed in their pj's, we heard fireworks outside. Peeked out the windows and saw an amazing fireworks show given courtesy of a house in our neighborhood....lasted 30 minutes! It worked out so perfect to have the kids all ready for bed....laying together in Drew's bed, and watching the fireworks outside the windows.

God bless America!