4th of July

I'll start off by apologizing that I have NO pictures from yesterday. The camera is definitely not a priority when we are packing everything we need and wrangling our two littles these days. So you'll just have to read about our day...

We celebrated the 4th in Centralia, our usual place ever since I was a little girl growing up a 1/2 block away from the parade. We watched some of the kiddie tractor pull. Kyler really wanted to try it but it is for ages 4-12 so he had to wait until next year. It's pretty cute - the tractor even has a sled with the moving weight and electronic measurements. It's the real deal, folks!

They also had a bounce house and Kyler took several turns bouncing around. He can hold his own in there with the big kids. After the bounce house, he wanted to play on the playground. Brett and I were hanging out with Myelle in the shade when I noticed Ky heading to the grass right on the outside of the playground area. I screamed "KYLER!!!" and started running. People probably thought I needed an EMT by the sound of my scream. But it was too late by the time I got there. His pants were to his ankles and he was mid-stream. I had to let him finish peeing. Everyone that saw was cracking up, including his dad. And I don't even have a good excuse for that since we don't live out in the country.

A little later it was time for the parade. My dad and grandparents joined us in our regular spot. Kyler was about the only kid on the block and everyone in the parade knew his papa so he got way too much candy. (We still have parade candy from last year and the Seneca parade is only a few weeks from now - he really cleaned up last year here too.) It was one of the nicest days I remember on the 4th - usually it is almost unbearably hot.

Since my parents weren't camping at the Centralia Lake this year, we decided to go check out Bern's fireworks show. Everyone has always said it was amazing so we thought we better see if it lived up to all the hype. It did! We were super close to where they were setting them off so it was pretty bright and very loud. Kyler heard his papa say it once and then kept repeating, "those babies took off." 

This morning when I asked him what his favorite part of the day was he told me, "the green ones." He was talking about the green fireworks. Then he added, "Papa said, 'those babies went off!'" Oh, and the best thing about this year - we didn't burn one of our kids with a sparkler! (Kyler got burned last year and it was not pretty.)