celebrating our independence

A quick run-down of our 4th of July.  

It pretty much included us inviting ourselves to a few gatherings.

The only thing we had officially planned for the day was the Idaho Falls parade in the morning.

Some of the crew for the parade.

Have you ever seen a camel in a parade before? This was a first for me.  It even peed in front of us for like 5 minutes...the kids thought it was pretty cool.

They even had the baby but it was a little tired of walking.

After the parade we ended up at a relative, of a relative, of a relatives house.  Needless to say it was someone we didn't know and we showed up anyway for a BBQ.  You can't celebrate the 4th of July without a BBQ it just wouldn't be American.

That afternoon we debated about sticking around for the firework show that night. With a new baby I didn't want to fight the crowds or be out that late so we headed back home.  We ended up once again inviting ourselves over to our neighbors to play in the water and eat dinner. 

Addy wanted to pose for the camera.

And another pose.

Once it started getting a little dark we put jammies on the kids and started with the parachutes.  I really didn't think they would even work because we bought the cheaper ones at the stand.  Turns out they all worked and some of them even had two chutes.  

Once it really got dark we put on quite a great show since we combined fireworks with several families on our street.  It was great to be home and socialize with people in our neighborhood since we are always gone on the 4th.