4th of July 2010

We had a fun 4th of July weekend with lots of out-of-town visitors. The Lawrence family stopped by for our neighborhood parade on their way from St. George to Fresno. It's always fun to see them and their cute 6 kids. The parade was awesome for our kids. They have been looking forward to it and were so excited to get their bikes ready for it and ride around the neighborhood. Of course they don't mind getting snow cones, cotton candy and popcorn and popsicles at 8:30 in the morning. Geoff had a little part in the parade activities this year...he shared a few quotes from the Founding Fathers from the Constitution and encouraged people to study the Constitution. he did a great job.
That afternoon, Geoff's parents came out to visit for 4th of July weekend. They always like to come visit before we move from a house and it worked out perfectly to be on 4th of July weekend. We headed out to a yummy dinner at Camille's and then to Dewar's to treat them to some Bakersfield ice cream. When we were all satisfied we went to Shafter for the big fireworks show. It was perfect. We got perfect parking, set up on the football field, let the kids do the bounce houses for a few minutes, the fireworks began and were so beautiful and then we headed to our car and got right out of there. It was such a nice evening.
The next day was Sunday, the actual 4th of July. We were trying to keep in the right spirit so we stayed low-key and went over to an elderly rehab center that our friend runs and hung out there where he and his kids put on a fireworks show for the elderly people. Fireworks and friends and watermelon and family and a bunch of elderly folk...how could we go wrong. Thanks Meldrums for inviting us out for the evening. Our boys loved the fireworks. Eliza wasn't too thrilled and thought they were going to burn her, but Carson was more than happy to twirl the sparklers around and the Meldrum kids were crazy with the fireworks. So glad nobody singed their eyebrows off!
To top off the long weekend, Monday morning was a patriotic ward pancake breakfast. It was delicious and fun and Geoff gave a little patriotic speech there too that I think was appreciated. My future politician husband...After breakfast, Geoff and Grandpa took the boys to the driving range and then we went swimming and had one of my mission companions and her family stop by and swim, which was such a nice surprise, along with the Crawfords and then had a pretty low-key evening. Grandma and Grandpa Howard left the next morning. We were so glad they came to enjoy the 4th of July with us!