The 4th of July

Being a resident of Arizona it makes enjoying parades almost impossible for the 4th because of the heat. Since I am pretty patriotic, and my boys love parades I hate to miss them. That is why we always go up to Show low for the 4th. Jacob had a lot of work to do so he couldn't come, and since it was in the middle of the week this year the rest of my family didn't want to drive up. I was going to go up by myself, but Jacob didn't love that idea. I decided I would text our Friends the Lake's to see if they could come. I knew it was a long shot since it was a last minute invite, but I got lucky. The Lakes were looking for what they wanted to do and Greg had the next few days off. So we went up with our buddies. The Lakes are fun to get together with because their kids are super sweet (Eli and Liam just love them) and Greg and Chelsea are always a lot of fun!

The boys and I slept at the Cabin alone because the Lakes couldn't come up that night. We ended up meeting up with them in Show low just before the parade. Now don't let the pictures fool you it really was the 4th, but yes we are wearing coats and beanies. For some reason the weather this year was cold. Everyone down in the valley even enjoyed nice cool weather. Anyway but to the parade...we really enjoyed it. The kids got lots of candy, and Liam got to see lots of horses. After the parade we played at the park, then headed to lunch. After lunch we went back to the cabin to play and relax and do whatever we wanted. That night we went to Payson for the fireworks. Not a lot of places could even have fireworks because of the fire warning so were were lucky they were having them at all. Anyway after waiting what seemed forever the fireworks started and they were totally worth the wait. They were so good and lasted forever. Liam and Eli loved it and Liam would yell boom!

p.s everyone has Eli to thank for the beautiful weather this 4th. I told him how the forest really needed rain so there wouldn't be fires. He started praying for rain. Even that night he prayed for rain again. Let me tell you there wasn't a cloud in the sky but the next day we had rain and wonderful weather.