Our 4th Adventure

For as many years as I can remember, the whole family gathers outside of Zips to watch the Coeur d'Alene 4th of July Parade with all the cousins (on my mom's side). As a kid I remember sitting in the sweltering hot sun, sitting on a blanket, eating Criss Cut Fries and drinking a Huckleberry Milkshake as the floats and bands and clowns went by. Well, this year was so fun because two of the four girl cousins came to join us for the parade festivities and it was our children that sat on the blanket and ate all the Criss Cuts.

From Left to Right: Allie (niece), Zoe (daughter), Rylee (niece), Brennan (cousin's boy), Emily (cousin), Audrey (cousin's girl)

Cooper did so well. It was so hot out and he was getting a little cranky there at the end, but he just sat nice and played with his flower and keys. Good little guy!

Here is Rylee and Zoe. They are just such good buddies and Rylee just loves to tote Zoe around.

Now even though the parade was so boring compared to years past, the kids loved it! The highlight, for Zoe at least, can't really speak for the other kids, was when Mudgie and Millie came by! You would have thought a celebrity was right in front of them! Zoe is still talking about it and we had to read the book about 15 times today.

I found on Bloggin' It where she had made festive wands for her kids. So I made some for all the kids, the only one who thought they were weird was my cousin's boy Brennan, age 6, who looked at it like it was a little too girly for his tastes. Sorry dude, I am just used to making girly things.

We then went to my Granny Stevens' house for Grandpa Stevens Famous Smoked Ribs and potato salad. Of course I don't have any pictures of our fun time there because Jeremy had to work and I had to wrangle both kids and just didn't have a 3rd hand available to take pictures. But it was a lot of fun and I ate like a horse... yeah I totally cheated on the diet! Felt like a big cow! Lol But that's what happens for holidays!

Then we went for Round 2 at Jeremy's parents for BBQ burgers, homemade ice cream, corn on the cob and fireworks. Zoe spent the whole time in her bathing suit and when we took it off her to get her cleaned up she had corn in it.

Cooper was so tired and after getting a healthy amount of Whipped Cream and Chocolate Pudding Pie from "Aunt Winky" (that's what Zoe calls my sister Whytnie), he proceeded to projectile vomit and was just not the happiest of boys, but both the kids did awesome with the fireworks.

Then on the drive home on the freeway heading into Post Falls, we came around the corner going down the hill and the firework shows that you could see was amazing! It looked like all along the river and out at Stateline and into Rathdrum everyone was doing these shows and it was something I have never seen before! Zoe was just about as excited as anyone could imagine. After no nap for either one of the kids, it took Zoe about a minute to fall asleep and Cooper was asleep until our very "considerate" neighbors decided to shoot off their fireworks on their porch which is about 15 feet away from their room, so it woke him up. But all in all, it was an awesome day and definitely one that will go down in the memory books for me!

Hope everyone had a great day and stayed safe!