4th of July

I love the 4th of July!!
I enjoy the parades, the good food, the family time, and the FIREWORKS. I love the sense of patriotism shared by all, if but for one day. This year, we started our day off at the annual pancake breakfast provided by the area police and firefighters in Clarkdale. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground equipment, and even got to ride on a firetruck-definatly a highlight for them! There was also a short parade (with candy!) and some children's carnival games (with prizes!). Does it get any better? It was super, duper HOT this year (as it is every year, but my pregnancy made it seem a little worse), so Dad treated everyone to snow cones when we finished up. Yum!!



After that, we headed to Montezuma's Park in Rimrock to swim in the ancient irrigation ditches. Sounds yucky, but the water is clean, and the park is nice and shady. What more can you ask for? We cleaned up and treated ourselves to some yummy lunch, where we each got to pick where we wanted to eat. In a family as big as ours, this is a rare treat. The kids all settled on happy meals from McDonalds, Dad picked A&W, and Mom picked Quiznos. Everyone was happy!









We then headed home for a short rest before we got ready to head to Camp Verde to spend part of the evening at the Cooks' house for some water fun and a pot luck dinner. We were able to hang out with a TON of fun friends, and the kids LOVED the giant home-made water slide. Will fell in love with the Cooks' pet goat, and wanted one of his own for a few days. Luckily for me, he decided that wasn't such a great idea. No pictures of the festivities though. Bummer.

Finally, we ended the day watching fireworks in Cottonwood from the Wells Fargo parking lot. I hadn't felt very good at the potluck, so I hadn't eaten anything for dinner. By the time we got back to Cottonwood though, I was feeling better, and I was starving! We stopped by Pizza Hut and ordered a couple of thin and crispy pepperoni, mushroom and sausage pizzas (my fav!!!) to enjoy while we watched the display. I had a mean bout of heart burn later that night, but the pizzas were delicious and so worth it. The fireworks display was awesome, and the kids enjoyed picking their favorites and watching for embers that got close to the ground (except Sawyer, who fell asleep). It was a wonderful day, and I loved spending it with my favorite people.