Fourth of July

 Happy Fourth of July!

Here it was HOT HOT HOT, but luckily we've got the kiddie pool and central air.

Like previous years, we ventured out in the morning for our local neighborhood parade at 8:30am.  This parade is one of the longest running ones in the county, I think?  It is mostly composed of local kids on bikes, cub scouts, politicians, and emergency vehicles...plus there is candy and it is short.  The parade route is only 5 blocks from our house, so we walk on up to it.  The past couple of years I have marched with the conglomerate band, but they didn't need drummers this year so I drafted Brian to take my place with his trombone.  This meant that I had kiddo duty :-)

We found a nice shady corner to sit on to view the parade.

 Yes, Jude has turned himself around in his stroller, the stinker.




The parade started with a gun salute and fire trucks with their sirens wailing.  Tam LOVED it, but Jude wasn't too sure about these noisy vehicles.

 Here's a photo of the band, consisting of locals who may not have pulled out their instruments since last July 4th :-)  Can you find Brian?

 

 Here's a closer snap of Brian with his trombone.  He says that he got the hang of the music by the second play through; It was Hail to the Chief.


By the end of the parade, we were all Hot and sticky...someone on a float tossed out icee pops, which were a cool relief but created wonderful messes.  I think it was already close to 90 degrees by 9am here and horrid humidity.

After the parade, we met up with our friends and their two kids.  We all walked on back to our home for the cool relief of the AC and a little backyard fun with squirt bottles of water.


The rest of the day, we laid low and tried to keep cool.

Though, I can't wait until the boys get a bit older and can stay up late enough to watch fireworks.  The Boston Pops show on TV isn't quite the same as seeing these pyrotechnic burst of color live.