July 4th 3013

We hope all our family and friends had a Fun & Festive Fourth this year!

We started out our Independence Day celebration a day early, on July 4th eve. The boys were excited to run around Grandma Jackson's yard with Sparklers (aka Sprinklers according to Garrtt) in hand!

Reece was a bit timid at first, but it didn't take him long to get the hang of it. He kept wanting to put his hand close to the sparkler-end of the stick! Daddy quickly redirected him!

On the morning of July 4th, we met Uncle Billy at his camper at the lake and walked to the Bicycle Parade starting line! Reece enjoyed getting a lift along the way. Take a look at the beautiful sky behind them. It was a fabulous day for a parade!

When we arrived at the parade start, we came upon an El Dorado Fire Truck! That definitely made the boys' day. The fire fighters were awesome and let the boys climb all over the truck before - and after - the parade.

Reece is still too small to ride a bike along with the big kids...but he didn't seem to mind. He enjoyed waving his patriotic pinwheel as the motorcyles, bicycles, and the fire truck went by.

Away they go! Cousin D.J. is in the orange tee...

...and here's our Patriotic Pedaler!

Cousin Makenzie is pedaling behind in the purple shirt. Both cousins did a great job of watching after Garrett as they made their way along the route.

All of the kids had a great ride. Garrett made it around 1 entire loop! (The cousins rode 5 miles around a few more loops). It was Garrett's first parade, and he was very proud of himself!
After the parade, the kids headed back to the fire truck while most of the adults enjoyed free watermelon provided by the Friends of the El Dorado Lake.

Sweet Boys!

Here's Garrett's decked-out bike. A minor crash prior to the parade crunched one of the handlebar flags...but overall, it looked great (if I do say so myself!) :-)

After LONG afternoon naps, we headed back out to Uncle Darren's Farm for great food, family, friends, and fun! The boys thought the chickens were fun to watch. Considering that our new home has a chicken coop...I wonder how long it will take before we are raising chickens of our own???

Garrett also enjoyed playing with the baby kitties! He named this one "Green", and it was hard for us to not bring little Green home with us. I'm sure we also have kittens in our future...