4th of July Weekend

I Love the 4th. It may actually be my favorite celebration!

I mean, come on... when else do you get beautiful weather,
great food, parades and fireworks?

 It was hard to narrow down my photos for this post so
 I hope you enjoy all of them.

Arron and I started the morning off by riding our motorbikes to Melba for the parade.
The kids wanted to sleep in this year so we just took the dog.

Small towns are the best when it comes to patriotism.

I admit it's a little bit redneck,
but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Okay, I have to stop the 'parade of photos' for a second to say...

 when I saw this group of Mexicans on these beautiful,
well trained horses,

proudly holding the American flag, I teared up.

We fell in right  behind the last of the parade participants.
I felt like I was in the parade.

 Olive was such a good girl, following at Arron's side.
She didn't even mind when people asked,

"can I pet your Labradoodle?" 

I could see Arron just cringe.
(why would anyone mix a lab with a poodle?)

We saw flags everywhere. It was wonderful.

After the parade everyone just left their chairs
and went to the tractor pull.

No need to worry about them,
 they will still be there when you get back.

At the tractor pull I bought 6 raffle tickets for a new lawn tractor.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I am so impressed with how this small town can put on such an amazing celebration.

I just can't say enough, they even moved all the fun to Saturday so families could spend Sunday

the way it was intended to be spent.

We came back later Saturday night for the fireworks display.

Arron's a pro at finding the best parking spot for an easy exit.
While he parked we found a sweet spot for viewing the show.
We actually got showered with debris from the explosions.
It was awesome!

I love when they play "Great Balls of Fire" they light off these huge fire bombs.
You can feel the heat from them and they actually mushroom cloud above your heads.

 It's not the 4th of July without great food.
Thanks to Don and Suzanne we had a delicious BBQ.
Grilled chicken, Grandma Glady's Lemon Jello Salad,
(I will post the recipe soon)
Lemonade, Watermelon and all the fixin's.
After we ate we went to Caleb's for dessert
and a barn raisin' (well a shed)
Amy and I didn't know we were both making berry trifles.
Great minds think alike I guess.
They were very refreshing and a perfect finish to our meal.

Skye played with the cousins and Lad rode Amy's Harley.
She's a lucky, lucky girl. We're all a bit jealous.

I am so fortunate to live in this country.
 America is still the bees knees.
People go to great lengths to live here.
Others go to even greater lengths to keep us free.

God Bless America