Fabulous Fourth

We had a wonderful day on Friday, celebrating Independence Day! What a blessing it is to live in a country with so many freedoms. As they say, "Freedom isn't free" and I am so grateful to all those who have worked hard and sacrificed much to ensure our freedom. I am also eternally grateful to the One who sacrificed everything to give us the ultimate freedom - freedom to enjoy a relationship with our Creator.

We started our celebration by joining our neighborhood parade. We hastily decorated the kids' bikes that morning and proceeded down our neighborhood's main street, led by a fire truck.



After the parade, we headed to the pool. They had great burgers and hot dogs and red and blue sno cones:



Barney made balloon animals and hats, poolside - you know he had to be hot!

Spongebob also made an appearance:

There was also an inflatable slip 'n' slide - much more sophisticated than anything I slid on as a child!

Silly Camden showing off his balloon hat:

Kenna and me in the pool:

After we'd had our fill of the pool (Robert and I, not the kids - they'd could have stayed all day!), we went home to rest for awhile, and then went to meet Nana and Papa and Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Kevin for dinner. We had Mexican food - appropriate for July 4th, don't you think?
After dinner, we went to the Gaylord, Texan. They had all sorts of free entertainment, including a balloon artist and a caricature artist.

We had to wait in line for quite awhile for the caricature, but I think it was worth it:

Here's a shot of the atrium of the hotel:

To end the night they had indoor fireworks. It surely wasn't as spectacular as an outdoor display and was very brief, but it worked for us - we got to be in the air conditioning and bug free!