Happy 4th of July!

It's a few days late...but hey, Happy 4th! I hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday! We sure did!

The boys and I took a trip to see Grandma and the parade. The last three years, Perry's dad has had his army jeep in the parade, but wasn't able to this year. So instead of riding in the jeep, we stood on the sidelines and observed.

Grandma helped the boys gather candy when it was thrown their way. 

 Poor little JP was pulling up his shorts all day. I sent Perry to the store to get more pull-ups for him, and he came back with 3T-4T for our toddler who is transitioning into 24M/2T clothes...so they were a little big for him. 

 "Mom! There's horseys!"

 At the time, I couldn't tell if Hunter enjoyed seeing the fire trucks up close because all he did was stare. By the time we got home, that's all he spoke about...and the candy he picked up.

 Someone was handing out flags at the beginning of the parade and to say the boys love them would be an understatement. It's now 3 days later and they are still obsessed with them. Though it doesn't seem to bother him, Hunter's flag pole was snapped in half by Aunt Kim's dog. Now they can't mix them up or the other gets upset!

 Just about after every time Hunter picked up candy, he wanted to take a break in the back of the car until more candy came. And then by the time he'd get out to get the just-thrown candy, he'd miss all of it. JP didn't have to be in the back of the car to miss all of it. He stood around pretty clueless just taking it all in. The kids next to us were really good about sharing with him! 

 After the parade was over, we spent the rest of the afternoon at Grandma's cabin. Hunter was kind of all over the place doing this and that with his squirt guns, but I managed to snag a picture of him on his trike. I can tell he really enjoys riding it!

 JP spent most of the afternoon buck-naked playing in buckets of water with the hose. He made me cold just watching him!

 Hunter eventually stripped down and climbed into a bucket. I don't know how! For one he's clearly too big for the bucket, but still managed somehow. And two, the water was ice cold!

 Grandma has a few deer that like to hang around. JP went down to check this doe out before she ran off. 

 By the time the early evening set in, the boys started getting a bit cranky. On the way home, they slept like rocks. After stopping to grab a few things at home, we headed to Aunt Kim's house for dinner. Once the night started setting in, I packed the boys up in the wagon and everyone walked about 3 blocks to the school to watch the city's fireworks. 

[And then my camera refused to work properly at night, so excuse the blurriness in these next few!]

 Here's the boys anxiously awaiting the fireworks show. This was their first real show and they were super excited to watch the "fire". I couldn't get it through Hunter's head that they were called fireworks, not just fire.

 Even if it wasn't the 4th of July, this is a great view of the city!

This is about the only picture that turned out. That firework was from the show they put off at the mall every year. Hunter was so excited for the fireworks that he refused to sit down. And then became a cranky mess throwing his sandals at me and JP. Thank goodness the show didn't last too long!