July 4th

We managed to have a fun and relaxed fourth of July. I love it when I can use both those adjectives to describe a holiday! We went to a parade downtown, where the kids were more excited by the cheap candy than the cool old cars, the live rock band playing "I'm A Believer" on a landscaping company's trailer, the police motorcycles, or even the two giant Percheron draft horses with red and blue manes and hooves. Riley almost redeemed herself when she pointed out a preschool friend who was the "Westward Expansion" float. At least she was paying attention.

We came home in time for Scot to get a rack of ribs in the smoker and for me to start the homemade triple berry frozen yogurt.

At 2:00 we joined the neighbors for a bike parade. We are lucky enough to have a Denver policeman living on the street, so he led the parade in his patrol car. That was likely Asher's favorite part of the day.

Ash was definitely the smallest kid in the parade, but he did a great job of keeping up with the group. In the picture above you can see him between the two kids in the front of the pack, just pushing away on his scooter.

Dinner was awesome! We ate ribs, my variation of my Grandma's potato salad, glass block jello, rolls, and peppermint lemonade. After cleaning up we watched a pit barbecue competition on TV before breaking out the frozen yogurt.

Because of the high fire danger, our town and all those around us had cancelled their fireworks displays. Instead we watched televised fireworks from D.C. and New York, and still managed to have the kids in bed around 8:45.