The 3rd and 4th of July

The 4th of July is my second favorite holiday. Halloween is my number one. When the weather starts warming up I get anxious for the 4th of July festivities to hurry up and get here. The reason I love it so much is because it's an entire day of fun. It starts early in the morning and goes until late at night. I love waking up and going to a parade, swimming and barbecuing during the day, firecracker (bomb-pop) popsicles, patriotic colored clothing for the whole family of course, and a firework show at night. This year was a little different because the 4th was on a Sunday, so the parade was held Saturday morning. Kristen and Dave were great and saved us a place curbside for the parade. My parents and Vanessa even came. Summerlin puts on a good parade. Darren had to work, but the kids and I went to my parents' to swim and barbecue after that. They always have the best food and decorate like a department store for every holiday.

When it got dark my brothers busted out the, ahem, "illegal" fireworks. Lets just say there was a breeze that night and we had a few close calls.  We went to church on Sunday, and then to Linda's for family dinner. It was Johnny's birthday month so he go to help blow out birthday candles with the other July birthday people. They made a darling flag cake for the day. Then on Sunday night we headed out to Boulder City for their spectacular fireworks show. It was a fun weekend, but splitting it up into 2 days was a little different. It is always sad when the 4th is over. For me it's like the feeling you got as a kid when you finished opening up all your Christmas presents and then immediately realizing it would be another year until you got to do it all over again....