4th of July Celebrations

Yes, I am still catching up. Eventually, I will be done with these catch up posts and you can see what's going on with us now. But here's 4th of July.

We started out the morning by joining with 5 other families and cleaning the Church building - it took us only 45 minutes because of all of us showing up.

Originally when we had our trip to California planned, we were going to be back on Friday primarily so we could keep our 4th of July traditions - 4th of July parade and then ribs and fireworks with the Crosby's.

One of the families, the Kraude's, who helped clean the Church joined us for the annual 4th of July parade through Midtown... Too bad they moved away at the end of August. But maybe they'll come back for 4th of July next year :)
It started to sprinkle when we arrived so out came the umbrella's. This is Kaylyn with Cami waiting for the parade to start.
I have two favorite parts of the parade. Here's one of the old cars - this is the model that Adam and I dream that we will someday have. My other favorite is the Victorian ladies. Each year they plan their parasol routine to music for the parade and it's a delight to watch. If we lived in the neighborhood, I'd so want to be in the group!

After the parade, we head over to our friends, Gaylynn and Cory, for Cory's famous barbecue ribs. And as soon as it starts getting dark, out come the fireworks (not my favorite part of the day but probably Adam's). Here's Cory with snap pops. Kaylyn, Morgan and Micah (Cory and Gaylynn's 3 y/o grandson) all joined in.

Then the "boys" started playing with fire. Here is one we captured with the camera.

Gaylynn and Cory's neighborhood is awesome because even if we didn't set off fireworks, there are still plenty to see from their driveway. Here's Kaylyn enjoying the pretty colors.