The 4th!!!!

The 4th of July is the biggest day of the year in our town.  It's one ginormous party from dawn to dusk, with firecrackers and fireworks going off all day long, tons of tourists and visitors in town, town parties and rodeos and events galore.  It's also our most social day of the year as we hop from BBQ to BBQ celebrating with friends.  It's also the one day each year you get to experience feeling like you are in a warzone.  I was surprised we had a house left after seeing what our neighbors were doing with fireworks all night long!

 

 

 

My friend Amanda let us sit in the shade, which is funny since their last name is Shade, in front of her husband's office building with them for the big town parade.  She brought drinks for the kids and made red, white, and blue drinks with sprite and colored ice cubes for the adults to drink.

 

KK, enjoying the parade.

 

My friend Amanda's daughter Heidi, ready to collect candy at the parade.

 

The Robesons are like a second family to Josiah; he watches football at their house weekly during the fall and winter and they continually bless us with venison and beef extras they have and it helps our family out so much.  They asked Ali and Jer to be in their business float and squirt people.  The kids loved it and they got to keep the t-shirts and super soakers!

 

Considering that outfits like these are plentiful at the thrift shop (KK's cost between 25 and 50 cents), we all get festive for the 4th!

 

I made another water blob and this time I put blue food coloring in it.  At our friend Amy's house, the teens usually end up in some kind of water fight/wrestling match so I figured it would be a great place to wrestle this year!

 

 

Our friend John is a former chef and makes the most amazing.......EVERYTHING!  He always wins the chili cook-offs and dessert contests at church.  Their homemade ice-cream on the 4th is a yummy tradition!

 

The kids enjoying John and Amy's pool.

 

 

 

At another BBQ, Josiah grabbed one of the teen boys' unicycles and took it for a spin.

 

I forget what this thing is called, all I know is that the teen boys made it and Josiah loves to drive it wildly around.  Here he is showing Jer how to do it!

 

 

Girls hanging out and having fun!  At this party we got to watch a neighbor light off a strand of 8,000 Black Kats and see a bunch of teen boys (and my husband, of course) blow up a stuffed animal........YIKES!!!

 

Our friend Seth showed us some cool tricks he'd learned:  juggling fire, swallowing fire, and breathing fire.  He's a homeschooler....what can I say? =)

 

Jer and Ali having fun with sparklers.

 

 

This year, the rodeo fireworks were the best I'd ever seen.  They doubled them up since last year fireworks were banned due to wildfires around the state and dry conditions.  The finale was so bright I had to cover my eyes, the booming and flashing was just to much to watch!!!  Our friends live near the rodeo arena so we got to see them for free!

 

Our 4th get-together of the day involved hanging out with some new friends and their visiting relatives while they enjoyed the first chance in a long time to be pyromaniacs on the 4th, since CA, where they used to live, doesn't allow fireworks.

 

 

I don't have a lot of people pictured here partly because I don't want to put friend's pics up on the internet without their permission.  But there really were LOTS of people at these events and we got to hang out with almost everyone we know in this town and my parents at various parties throughout the day.  I didn't need alcohol to feel like I had a hangover the next day!  The kids thankfully slept in until 9 or 10am and we had a slow day on the 5th, recuperating!

 

Fun! Fun! Fun! 

I'm not exaggerating one bit in saying that no one does the 4th of July like our little western town!