Sunday, July 8, 2012

Fourth of July


We had a great Fourth of July.  The holiday happened to fall on my days off this year and I was able to go to the parade in the morning. 

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We had to arrive before the road was closed.  We set up shop in a shady spot that ended up not being shady by the time we left but allowed us some relief from the sun for most of our time there.  Gav relaxed on the blanket sans shoes, I drank my coffee and browsed the news, and Brandon snapped pictures of us.

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Abby kept climbing up into the stroller and did not want to have her picture taken.  Brandon tricked her into looking at him and was able to pull off this photo.  She had been hiding her face with her hands.  She was a bit sluggish on this particular morning and I wondered if she wasn’t feeling well.

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Gavin wasn’t hiding from the camera.  In fact, he wanted to pose. 

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Gavin and daddy waiting for the parade to start.

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I was lucky to get this shot!  I’m so glad I did because they look adorable and this was a fleeting moment of siblings getting along. 

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They were too cool in their hats and sunglasses.
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Gav and Abby waved at everyone when they passed by.

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As the candy was tossed out they would collect it and sit down to eat some.  By some, I mean a bunch of candy.  Abby seemed much more alert after sugar consumption!

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The parade was enjoyable and was much longer than I had expected.  Afterwards we went home and spent the day relaxing.  It was over 100 degrees with the heat index and outdoor activities were not on the agenda.

At 8:30 we left for fireworks on the dam.  The dam is nearby and we didn’t want to sit out in the heat and sun for hours so we waited until just over an hour until the fireworks were to start to leave the house.

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We found a parking spot in the lower dam area.  We were lucky because there wasn’t much room left.  Then we climbed the 100 stairs to the top of the dam.  As we walked along looking for a spot to sit a couple was packing up.  Brandon asked if they were leaving.  The guy said there was a huge storm coming and they weren’t sticking around.  We took their spot.

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The beach is across the lake.  There was a band playing over there and the lake was dotted with boats.

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I was desperately trying to get the weather to come up on my phone.  The kids and Brandon were taking in the scenery.  We could see lightning in the distance and I was worried about how on earth all of the people were going to get off of the dam in time if a storm rolled in.  The radar showed the weather rolling across north of us so fingers crossed we wouldn’t have to worry about it.

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Thankfully the fireworks started about fifteen minutes early.  We were able to see fireworks from surrounding communities, the fireworks at the dam, and the lightning flashing in the distance.  We decided to pack up when the lightning moved in overhead.  We caught the grand finale just before heading down the stairs.  We made it to the van just as the raindrops started to fall.  We didn’t get much in the way of a storm but areas to the south of us were slammed with a decent one.

We had a fun holiday and hope that everyone else did as well!
   

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