July 4th, 2011

Yeah, so I'm a little late. It's been a busy month!

I was in the States for the 4th of July again, and this time I spent it in a very small town; a real slice of Americana I would say.

We started the day attending a parade. Anna had spent the previous week at her cousins house and they attended "Horse Camp" together. Now the word was they were going to be on a float in the parade. Here is the backdrop for the parade, it doesn't get much more beautiful than this:

I don't know this little boy. I had to take his picture because he was just so completely cute, and so representative of the part of the country I was in. (I was WAY out west in cowboy country.)

This, believe it or not, is typical main street where I was at:

And THIS was the parade queen!

I really laughed at the fact that that sweet old lady was the queen. Small town America...

This is the float my daughter was on. I never saw her! She was on the other side and I missed her. I cannot believe she was on a float in a parade and I missed her!

This gets my vote for cutest float. This whole day just seemed like a page from a long ago time. No glitz, no glamour, just really cute, regular people. (And a goat or two.)

I found my daughter after the parade was over. Thankfully she didn't seem too miffed that I had missed her.

After the parade there were portraits:

(Is she not just the cutest little thing? And then, look at this adorable little guy!)

There were picnics:

There were sparklers which, of course, the boys had to have fights with:

and the girls (at least MY girl) had to dance with.
There were also some bigger home fireworks which the boys had fun watching.

After all of that we watched the town's fireworks, then headed to a motel before driving home the next day. I'm not sure I could live in a small town but they sure are fun to visit, especially on holidays.