Fun 4th!

This 4th of July we watched the parade with neighbors. I think the recession hit the normal contributors because there weren't many real floats this year. The kids loved the crazy zebra and giraffe bikes, the police motorcycles and fire engines, the horses, antique cars and the marching bands.

Later that afternoon we packed the stroller with popsicles and juice to beat the heat and headed over to the park. Liam was totally excited about all of the carnival rides (no surprise). Daniel had fun on the bumper boats once we talked him into riding them.

All of the boys had fun holding and petting the animals. They all fell in love with two little baby goats. They were only 4 days old (smaller than cats), but the owners let the kids (mine) hold and play with them. After a little while the kids (the baby goats) started yelling "ma" when they got picked up. Daniel said they were yelling for their mom and I think he was right. There was also a newborn kitten that had been rejected by it's mom so the owners were bottle feeding it. They shocked me when they put it right in front of Caleb on the stroller tray. I was a little worried that he'd squeeze it too hard. Caleb was so excited. He kept squealing and giggling and he was remarkably gentle (thank goodness).

Liam, entered a watermelon eating contest. It was so cute. When the judges saw him they offered to find him a small piece since most of the other contestants were teenagers. I told them that he loves watermelon and I thought he'd prefer a big piece. Liam didn't win, but the judges kept saying, "I can't believe it, he's really competing!" They were so surprised. He gave some of those teenagers a run for their money. That's my Liam!

Our whole family decided to ride the paddle boats this year. It was really fun. The boys especially liked chasing the ducks and geese and looking for fish. Daniel thinks we need our own paddle boat now.

Even though we'd ridden them less than a week before for a ward activity, we couldn't go home without riding the California Live Steamers trains. This time we didn't see the deer (we saw 3 last time, one with antlers), but we did see the wild turkeys, a jumping jack rabbit, and a peacock as we rode around the tracks and over the bridges.

We were all worn out by the time we walked home.

That night we stayed up late to enjoy the fireworks show with the neighbors. Daniel and Liam were so excited for them to start that we walked up and down our street watching every one's home fireworks displays. I was struck by the irony as we watched some one's bottle rockets that so many Americans celebrate our country by breaking the law! Kind of funny. Then we enjoyed the view from our front yards as the big fireworks were launched over the river at the park.