Red, White, and Blue...I Love You!!

The Fourth of July is a very very close second to Christmas in the race for my favorite holiday. It's really the only holiday that is full of fun the ENTIRE day. Ours starts with a parade. This was the first year since I was a little girl that we went to the Kaysville parade. It was great! Not too long and not too short. It's a smaller town so they still throw candy and it actually had floats and great marching bands.

My McKenna, Dave, Derek, Maddie, Taylor, Ethan, and Doug (Bro-in-Law)

Oh my word...you wouldn't believe the amount of candy the kids hauled in. We even scored a couple frisbees, otter pops, frozen yogurts, and Dave was so close to getting a tie and t-shirt. My favorite part of the parade was when we were showered...literally showered with small play balls like you find in playground ball pits. This float had a lot of helpers and they were all throwing as many as they could as fast as they could. The kids were scrambling to pick them up while my mom, my sister, and I laughed and screamed at the chaos and balls hitting us in the head. We laughed ourselves to tears. I wish I had some sort of footage to document it. It was hilarious! Needless to say, we came home with many toy balls.

My mom, Laurel (sister), and Ryan (almost 1 year).

Sweet cousin-friends!

To prove that I do come along with the family.

After the parade the kids (and usually Dave) swim in my parents' pool. The kids spend all day swimming while the adults chat and prepare the BBQ.

I wandered my parents' backyard and took pictures of all their hard work. It's a beautiful place!

The girls love picking Grandma and Grandpa's strawberries. They gathered a cute little pile. McKenna likes to pick "the baby ones" of everything.

After swimming and a BBQ we drove over to Davis High School and watched their fireworks. We ate snacks and played with glow sticks until the show started. I LOVE lying on my back next to my family in the cool summer evening and watching beautiful fireworks above. LOVE IT! Each fun event of the day adds up to make it almost the best holiday, in my opinion. Can't wait until next year!