4th of July Fun

We have been traveling a lot lately, as is usual for summer, so we did the same for the 4th of July. This year we spent the long weekend with D's sister in northern MN. B had lots of fun with her cousins. We had not been to D's sister's during the summer, so we had some great new experiences. Every day was filled with lots of activity.

We walked through a bog at the local state park and saw lots of interesting vegetation. The floor of the bog is sand that is not packed firm, so the kids poked a stick into it to see how deep the sand was. They didn't find anything solid underneath.

Back at the house all the kids climbed into the hammock. B was getting tickled by her 2 older cousins (the younger one had already bailed).

Walking through the park before the fireworks all the kids held hands with aunt S even though the adult to kid ratio was one to one. The kids all had to be doing the same thing.

Cousin T and B playing in the sand. We watched the fireworks from across a huge lake. We forgot to bring any sand toys, however, so the kids had to be creative. At one point their shoes became shovels.

As it was getting later, and the kids had played in the sand for several hours, uncle C came up with some stories to entertain them.

Snack time before the fireworks started. It was going to be a late night so we tried to get some of the regular bedtime things done before the fireworks and before we headed home.

The next day we went to the parade in town. We brought our lunch after church and ate it while we waited for the parade to start.

B on Daddy's shoulders watching all the fire trucks come through. There wasn't much candy yet, so she didn't need to get down. All the kids got way more candy than they needed. Thankfully, B wasn't all that interested in picking it up, especially if she was already eating some.

Before we left on Monday morning, the kids had to take a quick run through the sprinkler. B was a bit hesitant at first, but was good and wet by the time they were done. I'm not sure why she still had her shoes on. Daddy was supervising this activity.

We had a lot of time in the car, but it was all worth it for the fun we had.