Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue!!

 Hip, hip hooray...another 4th of July is here.

It wouldn't be the 4th of July if we weren't in Hamiton to see the parade....the "candy" parade as the kids call it.

 We found our street side seating.

 

 Kimberly was very happy just to be here.

 Luke and Laura...notice the jackets.

 It was 59 degrees for the start of the parade....brrrrrr.....

 Waiting in anticipation

 I love the stilts lady every year. So I just had to add her to this post.

 I loved this little firefighter....He had the wave down perfectly.

 On to Uncle Tim and Aunt Suzanne's house for the yearly picnic.

Today is was complete with a giant slide.   It could have had water added to it, but since the temperature couldn't get into the sixties, we kept it a dry ride.

 Everyone had their own technique.

 Becky

 Amy

 Mark--Is there an age limit for this?? All my "big kids" spent plenty of  time sliding.

 Mark pretending he was the sheriff.

 congestion

 Careful Mark, Dad may now be 50 but he still has his moves.

 Uncle Tim had a new Frisbee game.

 Everyone in my family loved it.

 You get points for knocking the bottle off the stick.

 After enjoying time at Tim and Sue's house, we headed an hour north and partied at Joanne and Andy's farm.

Luke is helping Aunt Mary get photos of some of the animals.

 Cutest puppy ever!

 Kickball

 sitting on third base

 Love the pitchers face

 Picking teams for some rural fun.

 cousins

 First game up was the "rolling the 35 pound hay bale relay race"

 Kimmy could barely make it to the other side of the yard.

 

 Next our teams will fill up the glass jar at the other end of the course using a spoon.

 I don't know how this happened, but there are no photos of the raw egg toss. (eggs laid right here on the farm)

 Even Mark had fun playing farmyard games.

 We enjoyed a few daytime fireworks.

Our favorites were the ones that floated back to earth using a little parachute

 catching the parachute

 Heading home...driving into a storm

 We passed through the storm, came out the other side and was then blessed with a double rainbow.

 And then a gorgeous sunset.

 Silly singing kids on the ride home.

 The night ended with sparklers...the younger kids haven't done this before.  Of course, it was a big hit.

 Happy Birthday, America!!!!