Happy Independence Day!

I seriously love the 4th of July!  I love everything about it-- the parades, the fireworks, going to parks, beaches, having bbqs, roasting s'mores, everything!

Today we went to the parade as a family.  Last year I took Jeffy, Katelyn, and Bekah while Jeff was out to sea on his first patrol.  It's more fun having him around, even if I had to basically drag him there.  But he did admit that I was right and it was a lot of fun.  Just about every float/car that passed threw out candy and Jeffy and Katey got very good at calling out "candy please!"  And we even got some beads, flags, frisbees, and fans.  I think next year I'll make little bags for their loot, they really come away with that much.  The parade was what I was looking forward to the most. :)

Then we came home, fed baby, got everyone into their swimsuits (which I can't believe took an hour and a half) and headed over to our community's splash park!  This is our 2nd summer here and our first time to the splash park!  Silly us.  It was a blast!  The kids had a lot of fun.  There was a mushroom thing that was supposed to be dripping lots of water, but it wasn't working so well, which worked out perfectly for me.  Just a few spots were dripping, so I pulled a chair under there and sat with Jonathan while everyone else ran around.

Then we came home and took naps.  Well, some people took naps and other people wished they could. :)  For dinner, we tried to roast hot dogs and marshmellows over the grill in the backyard, but there were a million too many mosquitos so we came inside.  We made them instead on the propane stove on the kitchen table. :)

No fireworks show for us tonight, as I'm too tired to try to beat the traffic, hoards, and bugs, but when it gets dark, I'm doing sparklers. :)

Happy 4th to you too!