Awesome July 4th Weekend w/ Pics

We had an amazing 4th of July. The weather was absolutely perfect and we packed it with a day full of family stuff. Here is a recap:

We started the day with our town's 4th of July parade. My kids walked away with TONS of candy, and we saw some fun things, including Santa on a motorcycle:

Ho-ho-ho...where are the reindeer?

My son excited and acting goofy before the parade even started.

After the parade, we went and bought some fireworks for later that evening, and then we went to two farm and art markets, where, among other things, I got my wife a bouquet of fresh picked flowers in a vase for $5. It was a steal, they were beautiful.

We spent the afternoon forcing the kids to rest (knowing they'd be up late) and preparing for our annual block party. Our street is blocked off, so no cars can drive through, and the kids have a blast riding their bikes up and down the street. There were tons of cookouts going on, and people shooting off fireworks all over the place. We had about 5 or 6 houses that combined for our cookout, and it was awesome food. Grilled hot links, wings, homemade salsa...we were eating and snacking all night. Food, fireworks, and friends. It doesn't get any better. The fire department brought a big truck over and set up a "shower" for the kids to play in. Here are just a few pics:

Some of the neighbors mulling around.


The fire department hooked a hose up to the end of an extended ladder and had this shower going for 30 minutes or so. The kids LOVED it.

As it got dark, we settled back and watched some of our neighbors shoot off their BIG fireworks. Our town allows the big stuff, and we have several neighbors that literally spend thousands of dollars on fireworks. (what recession?) They put on quite a show.

We stuck to firecrackers and sparklers and let our neighbors spend their money on the big stuff.

Our neighbors were shooting stuff off until past midnight. It was great, but eventually we had to get the kids to bed, so we went inside. We had to sleep in the basement because the fireworks were too loud upstairs.

None of our fireworks pics turned out from the block party, but here is one my wife took a couple nights earlier at another fireworks show we went to, where I had the best seats I've ever had for a fireworks show.

I hope everyone else had a fun and safe holiday.

Running Update

I ran 4 miles yesterday, and 3 miles today. I'm still taking it at a slow pace while my foot continues to heal, and I am trying to focus more on striking mid-foot instead of heel first. It is taking some practice. We've had absolutely gorgeous running weather lately.