Happy Fourth!

This Fourth of July had a very different 'feel' this year.  Fireworks are the furthest from anyone's mind - everyone is scared to death of another fire.  It is so dry here that just driving over a field can spark a fire.

Our city ditched its usual fireworks display due to safety concerns, but it did do something new this year - a parade!  This year is the 100th anniversary of our City Park, so the city chose to hold a parade on the 4th of July in honor of this anniversary.  Since 2012 is also the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts, they asked our council if they would like to participate in the parade, by having the girls wear vintage uniforms and carry the banners for different segments of the parade.  The 'theme' of the parade was 'Transportation' (which makes total sense.. to absolutely no one) and was divided into different eras.

Rylan giving me the 'thumbs up'

The council put the call out a couple of weeks ago for scouts of all ages to walk in the parade, and Rylan readily volunteered.  She was the youngest scout there, and they had her wear a Brownie uniform from 1929.  She had a little hat (that looked more like a Hershey's kiss) and a brown linen dress with bloomers.  The parade route was almost two miles, but luckily it was early enough in the day that it wasn't too hot.

We had a good time people watching and parade watching.  This is the first parade we attended together as a family in years.  It was wonderful to walk along the parade route, after dropping Rylan off at the starting point and see so many people in their patriotic finest!

Lots of old cars... A-OO-GUH!

I'm a sucker for VW bugs!  And look!  It's our neighbors!  I won't point them out, but it's freaky when you look at pictures later on and realize your next door neighbors are in them.  Weird.

This was the best.  You could hear the cheers erupting from the crowd all up and down the parade route.  Firefighters have a special place in our hearts around here...

We grabbed some lunch after the parade, and then headed to the river to relax and cool off in the shade.  It had hit 94F by this point.  uugh.

We set up on the sandy shore and the kids immediately set about building a rock wall that stretched halfway into the river.  A nice couple was already at work on this project, so the kids just pitched in.  Not sure what purpose the wall was supposed to serve, other than the rocks were 'here' and *needed* to be moved 'there'.

We adults did not *need* to move.  It was too hot.

This guy survived three separate assaults by young children in the quest to hold him.  I do believe he will see another day.

Finished!  The on-site wall-building engineer (Dean) was certain that the wall was diverting the water in such a way that it made the tubers go fractionally faster as they floated by.  I think he spent a little too long in the sun hauling rocks from 'here' to 'there'.

And that was our day.  No agenda (other than the parade) and that made it immensely enjoyable.  So many good-natured people out and about today - at the park and at the river - all wishing each other a happy Fourth.  I have not heard a single firecracker all day, and for that (at least this year) I am eternally thankful - it means local citizens are taking the drought situation very seriously.

So thankful for the great community and country that we live in!