Happy 4th of July!

 Aidan pouting because we walked too far.

 Chasing down all the candy being thrown.

 Waving to Uncle Slam since he was wearing his P-Nats Hat.

 The ridiculous amount of candy the boys got. 

 Doing snakes and poppers with Daddy.

 Another 100+ degree day required sprinkler time even at 8pm.

 Doing sparklers in the driveway.

Yesterday we enjoyed a wonderfully, relaxing Fourth of July here. We slept in and then went to our local parade in Dale City. It was a huge parade with over 200 floats and marching bands etc. They threw out a ridiculous amount of candy. I am telling you that the box of candy we got weighed almost 10 pounds. It was crazy hot but we managed to find a spot in the shade and some of the entries handed out freezie pops and frozen water bottles. Aidan was less then thrilled with walking the 4 blocks to this wonderful spot and literally sat 10 yards back along the fence for the first 25 floats. One of the ladies on a float asked if he was in time-out. Nope just pouting. Eventually, he came around when he realized he was missing out on the massive amounts of candy and when his favorite mascot Uncle Slam came riding by. Living in a military town there were all kinds of military floats and things honoring WW2 vets on up. Aidan loved the tank rolling down the street. Of course, being an election year there were hundreds of people passing out candidate stickers, balloons, and fans. So we were covered in things by the time we got back. It was a great patriotic way to start our Independence day.

The rest of the day we just lounged around the house because the Heat Index was 110 and it was miserable outside. Jeremy cooked us a wonderful steak dinner and we topped it off with strawberry shortcake for dessert. We hit the fireworks stand with our neighbors and ended up just staying home this year instead of dealing with the crazy traffic for big fireworks. We did all the usual little fireworks with the kids like sparklers and snaps and snakes etc. But then once it got dark we brought out the big guns and did some awesome big ones that made all kinds of noise. They were really pretty. We had a blast and didn't have to go anywhere. That may be the new tradition from now on. Hope everyone else was able to stay cool and relax and enjoy America's birthday.