Monday, July 6, 2009

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.

9 comments:

Felice Devine said...

Looks like a super weekend! I love it when firetrucks set up their hoses. There is something just so fun about that!

Jess said...

Looks like a wonderful weekend!

Unknown said...

Fun weekend! And good running. :-)

Lacy said...

glad you're on the mend. Were those pics from the bradley fair show?
The put on one of the best and we don't want to miss it!

RunToTheFinish said...

yeah for healing!!!! WAHOO!!

ok i love santa that is too funny

Ashley said...

Great pics! We were in a boat parade at the lake on Saturday and my daughter Rylie thought all the "Uncle Sams" were "Santa Clauses," so we started calling them "Uncle Sam-a Claus" ! LOL

Chic Runner said...

Great pictures. Your son is so cute! ha ha. I can't believe that they did that with the firetruck! Glad your feeling a bit better and getting back into the swing of things! :)

Lindsay said...

what a fun weekend! the block party sounds like good times :)

glad the foot is doing better; nice job on the running!

ShirleyPerly said...

Wow, I can't believe the city actually closed down your street and brought in that fire engine! Glad you had a great holiday weekend.