4th Of July

This 4th of July we tried to pack in as much fun as we could handle!  We started with what we like to call "The Longest, Shortest Parade"!  It's a little parade in Aptos that they call the world's shortest parade because the distance it travels is short.  It's not short time-wise though!  Our tradition is to get there early to get the spot right next to where the parade starts.  We get our chairs and blankets set-up and then go get donuts (and Carey gets a breakfast burrito)!  This year we had such a great time at the parade.  Grandma Jackie and Auntie Laura came in our car with us, and our friends, the Rhoads met us down there.  Grammie Lori, Uncle Judah, Auntie Melissa and Auntie Kellie came for a little bit, too!  There was a little girl sitting next to us that was totally enamored with Haley, which was really cute.  I actually think that we may have made it through the whole parade without any tears, too, which is amazing!

All ready to stake out our spot!

I think this is our first family picture as a family of 6 (or 7 if you count Banjo)

At least one of my kids knows how to pick a normal size donut!

Kacie was so excited about the parade!  I'm sure she'll remember every second of it!

I love that my hubs lets me do things like this!

Banjo doesn't know he's too big to be a lap dog!

Seth enjoyed the parade from Uncle Judah's lap.

After the parade we went home and everyone except Kacie and I took a nap!  Our friends, the Orlandos, came over for a bbq that evening.  The kids ran around and played like crazy hoolligans and we had a delicious bbq dinner.  After the bbq we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores!  That's about as much as we would normally pack into a day, but this time, we had more!  We packed the kids into the car and headed out to Watsonville, where it's legal to do fireworks!  Dana had scoped out a parking lot for us to do them in.  The funny thing is that we thought the kids would think it was so fun and they ended up sitting in the car, totally afraid of the fireworks!  Eventually Abby and Seth came out and even did some sparklers!  It was really fun, though, and we decided that next year we'll save the money on buying our own fireworks and just watch all the huge illegal ones that where going off all around us!

Carey and Dominick (aka "Unky") ready to light some fireworks...after they laid them all out from biggest to smallest!

A car full of frightened children!