July 4 weekend 2010

July 4th weekend this year was tons of fun and very crazy. We had my mom, sister and brother in town, plus Chad's brother, Vance and three of his kids, Brookie, Vance and Trenton. Everyone arrived on Friday, July 2. That night my mom and siblings went to the rodeo. Chad was working the night shift. On Saturday, we went to the Prescott July 4 parade. We arrived about an hour late, found perfect parking and got a spot right up front. Also, even though we were an hour late, I was bored and ready to move on before it was over. That's how long and painful this parade really is. After the parade, we found a shadey spot on the grass on the square for the kids to run around. Chad and Vance went to walk around and look at the booths. The kids played and me and my mom watched them. Shelli and Brad watched some of the boot races. We had delicious fry bread and then went home. We put kids down for naps then I went shooting with Brad and my mom. I always try to make strawberry rhubarb pie for the 4th and this year made two. I also make homemade ice cream whenever possible. Both were fantastic. The kids had a wild and crazy time. Grant, Brookie and Vance are close in age to each other. Cole ran around trying to keep up and Trenton is 10 months old. There was not one quiet moment in the house while the kids were awake. They played with water balloons, sidewalk chalk, the Jeep and anything else they could find. The weekend was so much fun and so action packed it took us all about a week to recover.

(My delicious strawberry rhubarb pie. I made another one that had a Republican elephant on it in honor of the 4th)

(Cole napping during the parade)

(The crew in the prime shadey spot they found to watch the parade)

(Shelli with Grant and Brookie - notice Grant has two sucker sticks in his mouth thanks to the candy received during the parade)

(Mom with Cole helping him eat candied almonds, a must to purchase every year at the fair on the square)

(Brookie and Grant riding his stick horse - Grant decided a couple of days before the parade that he was bringing his cowboy hat and horse to the parade to be a cowboy. We almost forgot but just before leaving he remembered - again notice two sucker sticks hanging out of his mouth, and honestly there is a possibility those are two different suckers than those in his mouth in the picture with Shelli. I have no idea how much candy he got during the parade because Chad was with him, not me.)

My mom took more pictures than I did, including some of me shooting. When I get those I will post them to complete the story.