4th of July

The 4th has become one of my favorite holidays. It's one day of fun, nothing too crazy or stressful, but still packs a punch. This year we started out with our annual neighborhood parade and breakfast. I know I've said it before, but I just love this part of the 4th. It's one of my favorite things ever. It goes: family, church, nutella and then the neighborhood bike parade. ;) The day before the parade, Miles learned how to ride his bike without training wheels! Big day! He was hesitant at first because of how laborious it was for him last summer. He worked and worked at it, but never quite got it. We think that since he's done all that eye physical therapy, it really helped out with balancing etc. This year Richie held on to the seat once down the road, and after that, he had it! We were nervous about letting him try out his new skills during the parade since it's so congested. After one small crash at the beginning, he was incident free and was the first to make it to the breakfast line. Competitive boy, this one. This also marks the first year that Gwen rode almost the entire parade route without being carried! Both previous years, she's given up riding her bike once we are at the end of our street. This year, she choose the scooter as her ride of choice, and made it almost all the way to the end! She's such a tough girl, truly. Lindy was unimpressed.


After the parade we came home and blew up the pool and played kick ball in the backyard. I got some food ready and the Garners came over for lunch. After lunch we played with some water balloons out front. We rested for a bit, then we headed to Rich's cousins wedding reception. It was so fun, until Gwen threw up more than I thought was possible for someone of her size. Gotta have one of those experiences as a parent I guess. Luckily, it was a really casual reception, outside, and the gross-ness was easily cleaned up with a hose.



She started feeling better, and after we put Lindy down to bed, we got ready to enjoy our streets fireworks. Our neighbors are the best. On the 3rd, some neighbors who decided to set their fireworks off a day early, invited the kids to come watch, which they thought was so cool. On the actual 4th, we set up a blanket on the front lawn, let the kids to pop-its and sparklers, and then watched our neighbors light thousands of dollars worth of fireworks. At one point, we even got up on the roof and could see fireworks being lit all around Riverton. It was pretty awesome. I had one of those moments where I just wished we could freeze time and keep our kids little forever. It was a good 4th.