4th of July (2015)

My favorite holidays are Christmas, Easter, and the Fourth of July. We had a pretty low-key 4th of July this year though, given my impending could-go-into-labor-at-any-moment situation. The only thing I insisted that we do was the Edmonds 4th of July parade. Because what's more perfect than a hometown parade on the 4th of July?! (the answer is of course: nothing). The kid parade is my favorite part, but this year I had to sub out and have Kyle do the kid parade with Drew and I got to sit on the sidelines and take photos. I totally dropped the ball and most of the photos I got were blurry (I blame my fat pregnancy fingers...not sure how, but I do blame them). Much like last year, Drew was a little underwhelmed by the kid parade. He loves the main parade, though, because it has all of his favorite things: motorcycles, firetrucks, cars, pick-up trucks, boats, puppies, bubbles, monster trucks...he was in heaven. I also let him eat some of the candy that was being thrown to the crowd...he was drooling sticky lollipop remnants the whole time and it was so 4th-of-July-hot-summer-day-hometown parade-toddler-perfect I could hardly stand it!

Quick lunch in the shade before the parade started

Family pic (oh hey there baby Mary!)

Drew and I got photobombed by Ronald McDonald!

My sweet friend Erin with her daughter Noel

Drew was bored.

He wouldn't even wave...maybe next year!

First lollipop AND watching motorcycles in the parade...happy boy!

Drew and Noel are 4th of July parade buddies (both were a little
hot from the all the warm weather we've been having!)

Locked in on the fire trucks

More trucks!

He had this look on his face the whole time as he was studying each
vehicle that came by and then telling me what it was called.
Despite his lack of smiles, I promise he had fun!

After the parade we headed home for nap time (for everyone!), and then spent the afternoon with some church friends at our Pastor's house for a BBQ. After we put Drew to bed, Kyle and I enjoyed the neighborhood fireworks shows from our back deck. Fireworks are illegal in our city but we live in a little pocket of the city that's considered "unincorporated" so, for whatever reason, fireworks are legal right where we live. So we got to enjoy the shows from the comfort of our PJs!

And that was it! Hope everyone had a fun-filled and meaningful Fourth of July!