4th of July 2008

For Independence Day this year we hung out with some friends who invited us to go to Laurel to watch the ever so popular Laurel Parade. I don't know why it's so popular or what makes it such a big hit, but it is. Maybe it's all the candy they throw out, or the bottles of water, or the pop sickles or maybe even the footballs and frisbees. It seems like just another parade to me except for the fact that it's nearly 3 hours long. This year the theme was "100 Years" because Laurel is 100 years old this year, and I think it was the 100th parade also.

Here's Izzie enjoying the 90-something degree heat as we wait for the parade to begin.


Izzie and dad.


Quite a few parade entries went by when something different caught my eye. Two Deloreans. Of course I took a picture.


Here's mom and Izzie enjoying spoils from their parade collections.


I won't post any other pictures of the parade because, after all, it's just a parade. After the parade we headed back to Billings to attend a birthday party for some other friends' boy. He turned one (yep his birthday is on the 4th of July). Here's Izzie getting into the splash pool with the boys.



After some time in the tub it was time for the happy birthday song and cake.


After presents were opened and the food was eaten we headed off from there to go home for a nap before we went to see the fireworks.

Since we've been in Billings we haven't attended the fireworks show that our church puts on in the heights every year. This year the City of Billings canceled their show for some stupid reason, so we decided to head up to the heights for Celebrate Freedom (that's what the church calls it). Turns out that it's even more impressive that what I thought it would be. It probably rivals Coeur d' Alene's firework show (for those of you who have seen that one). I was very impressed.

Here's a picture of the launch zone and the mortars.


Here we are standing around hanging out before we find our plot of land to set the blanket on.


Ah yes. The magic spot. Surely it's the best in the entire park.


Here's Izzie and I taking self portraits again. It's an easy way to entertain her for a few minutes when she just wants to walk around and wonder off.


It finally started to get dark and we were all ready to watch the show. Here's an excellent picture of Izzie hanging out on the blanket. She's so cool.


Mom and Izzie watching the fireworks.




I had to take a few pictures of the fireworks, and since I'm a nerd and think they are cool pictures, I'm going to post a couple.



Hey, it could be worse. I could be posting Star Wars references. Anyways, that was our 4th, and after a parade, a birthday party, a fireworks show and a one hour wait in traffic to go about 8 blocks, I was ready for bed.