Ana with her candy bag ready for the parade to start.
Rebekah in red.
Miri with her bling.
Winnie eating sunglasses.
Analee and Ellie thought the fire trucks were too loud.
Some of our group watching the parade.
More of our group. (My dad gets some looks in this getup. He had back surgery followed by shoulder surgery, hence all the bracing.)
Winnie got too hot. We had to strip her onesie off and let her sit in the shade of Aunt Jessica's umbrella.
Camel!
After we made our way through all the post-parade traffic, we re-congregated at my parents' house for a delicious lunch.
I suspect few other family lunches on the Fourth consisted of our German fare: weinerschnitzel, red cabbage and cold potato salad.
We made an almost last-minute decision and got a hotel room to watch the fireworks at the greenbelt. We played games and ate munchies while we waited for it to get dark.
Andrea, Shelby and Rebekah playing Apples to Apples with Analee and Grandma Scott.
When you have six small children crowded in a hotel room for hours, TV is pretty much a necessity.
Unfortunately, the fireworks were delayed an hour due to an emergency, and almost all the kids slept through the show. When they started, we had to wake up Rebekah (asleep on the floor next to the door leading to the hall) and Analee (asleep on the couch) and move them to the balcony to watch; Ana watched for about 20 seconds, then got up and walked back into the room and tucked herself back in bed. Rebekah snoozed through part of them, but woke up in time for the big finale.
The next day, we spent some more time with cousins at Rigby Lake.
Miriam remembered her car float from the year before and thought she could squeeze in it again this summer.
We had plenty of sun, water ...
... and sand.
Uncle Jon helped his girls build quite a formidable sand fortress.
Gwendolen lasted about two minutes in the water.
She enjoyed her time on the beach much more.
Bekah and Ana constructed some castles of their own.
My usually pasty back still bears the marks of that day. That's what happens when you're basically an albino and you seldom go swimming. The girls probably could have spent all day at the lake, but we had to duck out earlier than the others so I could get some things ready for Rebekah's baptism the following day.
To see more Fourth photos, start here.