fourth of july festivities

i love celebrating the fourth of july. this is a holiday where we get to celebrate the wonderful country that we live in, plus it is a great excuse to dress katelyn in as much red, white and blue as possible.

we began our day by watching the cities annual fourth of july parade. the only other fourth of july parade we've attended as a family is the very large, very crowded parade in provo city. to prepare for that parade you have to put your blanket out days in advance and leave hours ahead of time to find a parking spot, and it's all worth it. so when we heard there was a parade in our hometown, we prepared just as thoroughly. it turns out that isn't really necessary. sure, there were lots of people and sure, it was still a great parade, but not nearly as crowded, but still worth it. we had plenty of space to stretch out and enjoy the show.

later on that afternoon our ward had prepared a fun bbq for all of the families in our ward. it was so fun to see all of the kids and adults dressed up patriotically.

i did this to the picture just to emphasize her red, white and blue. she ate it all up and loved it just as much as me.

playing with daddy at the bbq

enjoying an icee

after our ward activity we headed over to our manager's house. he was having a fourth of july party too. one bonus to this party was that he had a heated pool, so it was warm enough for katelyn to swim. she loved getting in the water and it wore her out just enough to take a long nap when we get home.

last year, tyler and i ditched out on fireworks to let katelyn sleep. this year, we were determined to go. since katelyn took a great nap, we headed out, found a great spot to sit with some friends and waited for the show to begin.

we weren't sure if sparklers were legal in wisconsin, so before we lit up, we found some police officers and asked if it was okay to play with them. we were told that technically they were not legal, but if they didn't see them, then no one would get in trouble. we felt okay with that since we asked them directly.

katelyn was a little nervous at first, but eventually was brave enough to hold one.

before the firework show began.

it turned out to be a chilly night! thank goodness we brought some blankets. who knew we would need blankets in july?

katelyn was pretty scared during the firework show. she kept trying to sink further and further into tyler as she could possibly get, and she kept her eyes sealed shut in the beginning. about half way through the show she started watching the fireworks but made sure that tyler kept her ears plugged. we've obviously brain washed her about the fireworks because now, if you ask her about them, she'll say, "fireworks are loud, but fun and pretty too."