4th of July Celebrations

I have to admit, I am so grateful that Aaron has a job with holidays off! When you are working college jobs you don't often get to have your holidays to yourself so it was great to take a mid-week break and celebrate Independence Day together. I love this holiday. It is probably one of my favorites. I love the summer heat, the ice cream, the fireworks, but most of all I love the patriotism. I can't help my hold back tears as I put my hand on my heart and watch the flag being marched by by the color guard. I love hearing and singing the National Anthem, and I love being able to say thank you to those who have served in the military. I can not say enough about my appreciation for these men and women including Aaron's brother Ammon and sister Gentry who we love and admire greatly.

This year we really packed the day full of activities starting out with a parade in downtown Boise. I am so glad that we have some family here. Although I never new many of my Gardner cousins much (mostly age difference) I love being able to still celebrate holidays with some family and Aunt Valynn and her daughters have taken us in like we were always here.  James is best friend's with my cousins' sons Cooper  and Jacob and as you can see they were all fans of the parade. What little boy doesn't love seeing firetrucks, army trucks, and well anything with a motor in it. James loves waving his flag as the floats passed by and although Madie doesn't look excited, she didn't stop bouncing up and down the entire parade because of her excitement.

After the parade we headed over to meet some friends at the park where they were holding a chalk festival. I didn't get any pictures of the art but there were some really amazing pieces including one of the Madonna and Christ Child that was truly a masterpiece. They also had a kid land with chalk drawing for kids, face painting, and a lot of games. James and Madie were so worn out they fell asleep in the 5 minute drive from the parade to the park and didn't even wake up when we moved them to the stroller.

After they took their naps we saw all the art, Aaron finally coaxed James to get his face painted. (It took some serious coaxing and only after they showed him that they could do a bat man was he convinced that it was ok)

We had a picnic lunch and let the kids play around. It was a perfect day to be outside and after James' initial after nap grumpiness, he had a blast.

That evening we headed to my aunts house for a potluck and fireworks. They had a slip and slid the kept the 2 year olds entertained for a full 3 hours until the mom's called it quits when the sun went down. James got his first ice cream cone of his own (usually he always shared with one of us) and loved it.

However it did get a little messy in the end and Aaron ended hosing the boys down. As one cousin said, "Not the way a Mom would go about it, but it certainly gets the job done" (Side note he didn't just hose them down he basically water boarded them in the face. However for some reason because Dad said it was cool both boys kept asking for more although they never really seemed to pleased about, one of those 'well if Dad says so this must be fun' looks)

Madie really wanted ice cream too and nearly attacked anyone near her with it, but sadly her first ice cream cone will have to wait for later.

As for fireworks put simply both kids were asleep for them Madie well before they stared and James a few minutes in he basically said they were loud, pulled my hand over his ears and went to sleep. One of these years he might actually watch the fireworks but not this year.