Happy Independence Day

We started our day off by going to the Murray parade as we always do.  We got to our spot and Tony set up the umbrella behind us which was so nice to be in the shade the whole time.
The kids did really good to stay by us during the parade and got lots of candy from all the floats, cars, and other people in the parade. They did not have as many entries in the parade as they normally do.  They had 75 and they normally have over 100.  It was still lots of fun and probably better that we weren't stuck out in the hot sun for much longer.
Allie did really good during the parade.  She lasted about 20 minutes in the stroller before wanting out.  Tony got her out and then she was really good watching all the action.  She did cry once when she was squirted with water and once when a piece of candy hit her.  So really good for her first parade.

After the parade we went my parents house for some more fun times.  The kids wanted to get into my parents pool that they set up the day before.  So we changed them all and they went swimming.  Tony even got on his swimsuit in case Megan needed help.
Megan did not need any help at all.  She was plenty tall and did great with just having the ring floaty around her.

Josh started out with little floaties on his arms, but quickly took them off when he realized he didn't need them.  Josh loved playing water wrestling with Jacob for hours in the pool.  They were so funny to watch.  Jacob would keep pushing Josh into the water and Josh would keep going back for more.

All the kids had so much fun playing in the water and splashing all over the place. They must have played in the water for a couple hours before getting out to have some lunch.  The water looked so nice and cool on such a hot day.

Allie thought that the water was way too cold.  She only likes water if it's a nice warm temperature.  She got lucky to be held by so many of her aunts today.  Aunt Teagan was nice to hold her while I took pictures of the crew.
After watching her siblings play in the water, Allie got to play on the trampoline with her daddy.  She really liked bouncing around on the tramp and even had fun when Megan joined them and bounced all around her.

After lunch and a nice long nap Allie finally got to play in some water.  My dad put a tarp under the pool so a lot of the water had come out into a small pool on the tarp.  That little pool had nice warm water and Allie loved it.  We decided to just take off her shorts and let her splash around like crazy.  She had one very full diaper after she was done sitting in that little pool.

All the kids got back into the pool later in the afternoon, but didn't last very long.  All the other kids got out after about an hour but Megan was still going strong.  So it was just Megan, my dad, Wendy, Benjie and myself in the back yard when Benjie said he wanted a 4-wheeler ride.  My dad was very nice to take Benjie and Megan around the yard a couple of times. 

We decided to go to dinner at Chick-fil-A like we did last year.  It is a nice break from the heat and it lets the kids play on a play ground inside a cool building.  This year Julie and Kevin's families joined us.  It was a nice break up of the day.

After dinner the guys got out the trailer so that we could go on our family parade ride.  We all piled up into the trailer and that is when it started raining.  It was just a few sprinkles at first but by the time we got around the block it was raining pretty hard and the drops were really big.  Since it was raining my dad came back home and we all ran inside.   It was a fun family trailer parade ride while it lasted.

While it was raining we hung out inside and watched Averee open her birthday presents.  While we were hanging out Josh just climbed into my dad's lap while he was playing the tablet.  I am glad that my boys are slowing getting to know my parents better.

The rain and wind passed just in time to do fireworks.  We did fun parachutes, snakes, and Pop It's before the big fireworks.  The kids all really enjoyed the fireworks at first, but then quickly the girls got more and more fussy.  I took Allie into my parents house and she fell asleep while I watched the fireworks from the window.  Megan fell asleep in Tony's arms while the fireworks were still going.  After everything was done we packed up our sleepy family and came home.  What a great Independence day!