Independence Day Stuff

I seem to keep forgetting that I actually know where my camera is. At least that's what it seems like with how few pictures I've been taking lately. I keep thinking I should be taking more but rarely pull out the camera to do so. So in a way I'm amazed I got what pictures I did from the Independence Day celebrations. Well, at least from the local parade. Didn't get a single picture taken when we did fireworks with the kids. Or from the barbecue we had. Or even from eating lunch after the parade with some wonderful neighbors. Didn't even get any pictures of the water fights that went on with the parade this year. And since that's mostly what Jimmy did, I somehow managed to miss getting a single picture of him from those days. I keep telling myself that was a case of self-preservation and to save the camera from the water. Not quite sure I believe it though.

We did have a lot of fun for the holiday weekend. The only downfall being the motor going out on our air conditioner the afternoon we had the barbecue at our house. Luckily it was a cooler day than it had been. Another good neighbor and friend came over and helped Russ get it working the next day after work. Which was another time I thought I should pull out my camera and didn't. He brought along his three daughters and they had a good time playing with my kids. His youngest is about 6 months older than Dylan and they played really cute together. Dylan would kind of give her a hug and look at me and say, "Gracie nice."

The parade seems to get longer every year. For our town not being all that big, the parade is large. It was scheduled to start at 11:00. Always at the end of the parade is a giant water fight along the parade route. That part was actually shorter than it has been in the past. And even then the parade didn't end until quarter after 1. Of course, that meant more candy that the kids were able to get at the parade. Knowing full well that the parade ended with a big water fight didn't stop Russ and Jimmy from being drenched before the parade even started. I think they almost wished it had been a hotter day than it was after that.

One nice thing about being the main photo taker in the family is that means I am in very few pictures. Russ did get the camera at one point and made sure he took a couple of me. I'll get one of those here first to get it quickly out of the way.
Here are the girls at the parade with their sacks ready to grab more candy thrown their way. Jimmy didn't watch a whole lot of the parade but still managed to get a bit of candy.
You can kind of tell how wet Russ got in this picture. I was actually surprised Dylan didn't mind being held with how wet he was.

Going back to being the main photo taker, sometimes Jimmy gets a hold of the camera. Sadly on my part, some of the best pictures we have are ones he has taken. This is one Jimmy took in the car as we were headed to my parent's house recently. Totally unedited, I should note. Decided to throw it in this post because I think it's cute. Not sure how he got Dylan to stick his tongue out at him for it.