Independence Day

We had a pretty good Fourth of July. 

I was a little bummed because this was the first time in my entire life where I hadn't been with family over the 4th. But it turned out alright. Some friends from the ward invited us to sit with them at the parade. They also invited us to a swim party, a BBQ, and a dessert/firework party. We ended up just doing the parade and the BBQ because of naps and stuff, but it was still fun. 

We rode our bikes down to the parade. This was Kale's first time in the bike carrier and I was slightly hesitant, but he loved it. 

The parade was good. Long (two hours), but good. 

 Waiting for the parade to start.

There were a ton of huge bands, which I loved. But I think think this one was my favorite. Just because I liked their costumes the best!

Kale fell asleep about half way through the parade. 

These planes kept flying over the parade route doing tricks. 

Tim's absolute favorite thing about the parade? This guy right here. He is Daryl from the TV show "Storage Wars". Tim loves that show and he was SOOO excited when he saw Daryl!

One thing I thought was lame about this parade was that no one threw candy or anything. Zero candy. Not even a Smartie! One guy did walk up and give Mylin this little flag (which she thought was awesome!) but no candy.  

Excuse the no shoes.... I can't keep shoes on this girl to save my life 

Some people came by and did these "Face Painting" stripes to all the little kids. Mylin was pretty excited about that. 

After the parade we rode home and the kids took naps. Then we went to the BBQ with our friends, but I didn't take any pictures. They had decorations for the kids to put on their bikes and did a little bike parade. 

After that we came home and did our own fireworks. We thought about going down to the pier to watch the big fireworks but we ended up just being lame and not watching them at all. (Good thing we didn't go to the pier though. My friend went and said it was so crowded it took them almost three hours to get home. They live like 3 miles from the pier!)

Mylin loved helping her daddy with the fireworks. At first she would just sit by me and Kale but eventually she got brave and helped Tim. Towards the end, she was getting too brave and wouldn't move after they were lit so Tim had to pick her up and drag her away!