Still in search of the Fourth

The Fourth of July is an interesting holiday around here.

I'll admit,

this year it was a bit of a mopey holiday.

It is funny to me that of all the holidays, 

the Fourth of July is one of the hardest to be away from the 

family traditions I grew up with.

I probably just need an attitude adjustment. :)

I'll work on that.

We did enjoy a ward flag raising, bike parade and breakfast in the morning, which was  a lot of fun.

The Primary Presidency was in charge of the activity, and thanks to the help of our pancake chefs it went quite well. We had a really good turn out and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so that was great.  I always enjoy the opportunity to visit with people since Sunday's get crazy in Primary and I don't often get to visit with people at church. We are lucky to have so many good people in our ward here.

The kids always love getting their bikes or scooters 

all fancied up for the bike parade. 

I think they...umm, I...did a good job this year.  :)

Then the afternoon hit and we ran into a bit of a lag.  

We were missing the Hyrum parade, Uncle Corey's hot dogs, and of course, all the family!

Bryan and I did a little research and came up with some games to play, which was fun and kept us entertained for a while.  We played a History of America card game that we have, then tried a few new games. The kids were a little uncertain of Bryan's "Freckle Frenzy" game :). I should have posted pictures of that one, Bryan and I looked pretty stylin' with all the paper freckles stuck to our faces!  

Then we did some water balloon pinatas, which the kids loved.

That evening we went to the fireworks.  It was nice to have a firework show since last year it was canceled due to the drought.  We ran into a couple from our ward at the park, and the kids had a great time playing until the show started.  

They love watching the fireworks through the sunroof or the Sequoia.

Cute, aren't they?!

And there you have it.

We went to bed planning what to do next year to make our Fourth of July less sad. :)

I think we have some good ideas...

next year is going to be awesome!