July 4th

We celebrated our Independence Day with two … count them 1, 2 … parades that morning!  This was a first for us.

The first parade was over in my mom’s town.  It has become a sort of tradition for a bunch of the family to get together and cheer on the tractors and horses …

Wearing flag shirts has also become somewhat of a tradition (although, after how awful this year’s fit me, I think I’ll boycott this tradition next year!)

The boys all wearing sunglasses should TOTALLY become a tradition …

The parade was fun as usual.  Perhaps there were not as many firetrucks as usual – there were a lot of wild fires this year – but plenty of tractors, the F-16 fly by, horses, and candy.  My boys are pros at getting that candy!  I think they get more thrown at them just because they are so dang cute …

I mean, seriously, look at this kid!  How can you NOT want to throw candy at him?

After that parade was over, we busted a move back home for our own Hooper Parade.  It starts at our church and goes to the park.  Sadly, it doesn’t pass in front of our house, but it does pass in front of some friends’ homes.  We had a nice shady spot near the beginning of the parade.  We again were bombarded with candy and the boys enjoyed themselves.  It was fun waving to people we know …

Later in the day, a bunch of family came to our house for some hot dogs and chips and some card playing.  The little kids had fun playing and it was just a really nice day.  I missed going to the park for the booths and bingo playing, but you can’t always do everything you want to do – and what we did was great, too.