4th of July

For the 4th, we started the day at the Rexburg parade. It was my favorite part of the day! There are a lot better parades out there, but I love our small town, quirky little production. After the parade we headed to Idaho Falls to wait for the fireworks and to enjoy our hotel room. We went swimming in the hotel pool, ate dinner at Chili's, got up close and personal with the falls on the river and walked around the vendor booths on the greenbelt. The girls kept commenting that they couldn't believe we were in Idaho Falls. Our typical trip to IF involves a lot of shopping, not a lot of enjoying the sites. We had a decent view of the fireworks from our hotel lawn, so we set up our chairs at about 7:30pm and waited until 10:00pm for the show to begin. We were all asleep, back in our room by 10:45 or 11:00pm. This morning the girls and Landon swam in the pool, and we got home around 11:30am. Landon and I had a 3 hour nap this afternoon.
Looking forward to supper with Nana, Lorina and Christina tonight. Landon made beef enchiladas with his homemade red enchilada sauce, and I made chicken enchiladas with our green tomato salsa we made last year. Landon and I set up our chairs at 6:30am. Our shady spot from last year and the year before was already taken, so we tried a spot across the street. No shade, but we had a solution... We set up our sun umbrellas! We tied them onto the back of Christina's chair and Landon's chair. All they had to do was stay seated so the umbrella didn't tip over backward. These umbrellas came from Sam's Club and after we showed Nana ours, she bought one for herself. We were happy we had them at the parade.

The happy, patriotic family.
The girls got some rest before the candy chase began.
Over the years the girls have gotten better and better at chasing down candy. They work as a team and use one bag. The look of concentration on their faces is unbelievable.