July 4th

We definitely got lucky on the Fourth of July this year. The weather was nice and warm, but it was slightly overcast and so the sun and heat were not oppressive. We had a lot of fun together as a family, inside and out. We started the day off with a pancake breakfast over at the church, and then went directly from there to downtown to see the city parade.

The kids loved the trucks and cars and dancers and gymnasts, etc. Heather thought the fire truck was just a bit too loud though...

Can you sense the anticipation?

Heather sporting a really cute star-shaped hairdo (a credit to Stephanie's unlimited reservoir of patience).

The fam

Wow, Heather is intensely waving that flag--you can see it in her face!

We snapped a few more photos when we got home.

Some glamor shots of Heather's hairdo.

I guess Josh wanted to glamor shots too.

...aaaaaaand some not-so glamorous shots...

Proof that I was there.

The kids took a fairly good nap, which gave us time to bake some cookies and throw together an Independence Day feast.

The kids were pretty big fans of the red white & blue kabobs.

We followed the ancient Standage family tradition of buying some extra egg nog at the end of December and freezing it until July. It was hidden in our chest freezer downstairs so we almost forgot about it. We managed to thaw it in time, but between a large dinner, a trip to the park, fireworks in the parking lot, putting the kids to bed, eating cookies, and almost finishing a movie, we were just too pooped for egg nog. Don't worry though, we made quick work of it the following day!

Honestly, the best part of the day was just having lots and lots of time to be together as a family!