A Fourth of Fun

A neighboring town opted to celebrate the 4th of July on the 3rd this year, given that the 4th was a Sunday. While there was much ado (on both sides of the issue) about separation of church and state, the validity of a holiday not celebrated on the actual day and the sanctity of the Sabbath... er... Sunday, I only had one thought: Sweet! Two days of community events! So we packed up and headed over on Saturday to see what the Town Next Door had to offer.

We left the house a little late and missed the annual pet parade. Fortunately for us, this year's participants were almost all dogs. In the past there have been goats, pigs, donkeys and (I'm totally making this up but it would be awesome) chickens on leashes. We made it there just in time for the actual people parade.

Here are the highlights:

Norah waving to the parade. Our pastor's sweet daughter gave Norah a sucker. I think she was half way down the street and Norah was still yelling, "Thank you LIBERTY!!"

A local church gave out water. It was a pretty hot day - in the low 90's, which is about as hot as we get around here. I was impressed that the church anticipated the needs of the community and worked to meet them. It was kind of like they were doing what churches are meant to do... which unfortunately, is not all that common these days.

I'm pretty sure Anne (Ellie's grandma, in the front there) got a better picture than I did. Still I thought this was SO cute of the girls. I captured this just seconds before they pulled each other over and fell to the pavement in a giant red, white and blue heap of arms and legs.

Toward the end of the parade a truck with a giant water gun drove by. Norah wanted to get wet, so we went and stood behind it. The H2O output was roughly equivalent to a height-of-monsoon-season Pacific Rim light hurricane. Here, Norah is demonstrating that she got wet "all the way to her button".

This red white and blue cutie sure had fun!