July 4

The kids and I spent the 4th of July in Amarillo.  Gigi thought we should attend the Canyon parade, so we did!  The kids and me waiting for the parade to start.

I told Gigi I'd noticed that somehow she was missing in a lot of our photos, so we had to get one with her too!

The start of the parade....

Kaiden with his first candy catch.  He wasn't too sure about all of this at first.

No parade is complete without a fire truck.

There were lots of fire trucks, and they all were making lots of noise.  Neither one of my kids were too excited about all of the noise.

Mailee made her "that is a loud noise" face as all the noisy firetrucks went by.

I have to agree, it was pretty noisy....so I put on my best "this is really noisy" face too!

The cast of the outdoor musical "TEXAS," that is set in Palo Duro Canyon.  If you haven't seen it, you should go!  Awesome show in an amazing canyon!

The horses and flags from TEXAS.

One of the leads from the musical just happens to be a good friend of my parents.  Gigi caught his attention, so we got a picture with him!

Mailee and I checking it all out.

We saw lots of cool old cars.  Mailee really liked these.  "Caahh!  Caahh!"

Mailee is NOT a fan of wind.  Unfortunately for her, it is almost always windy in Amarillo.  She spent a good part of the day trying to snuggle up with me and hide from the wind.  I don't think it worked.

As we walked around the town square, we ran into one of my childhood friends.

We ate some corn dogs and funnel cake, but the only evidence we have of that is here...

On the way home from the parade, we thought we'd stop and see Poppy.  He's been working at Maxwell's Pumpkin farm.  The kids got to ride on "Poppy's tractor."

Kaiden was SUPER excited about the tractor.

 Maxwell's farm had some interesting cows...

 The kids thought they were pretty fun!

 The most fun.....was riding in Poppy's truck with no car seats!  (Don't turn me in....it was only on the farm!)  ;)

Poppy showing K the pumpkins.  They have a long way to go before they actually look like pumpkins....

Mailee liked playing in the dirt.  Can you see the green leaf by her foot?  Someday a pumpkin....

Deeogee was dressed up for the occasion.

That evening, we had Uncle Pete and some other friends over for burgers.  Yum.

Then GranSan and Uncle Buck came by.  Mailee and GranSan had fun playing while we waited for it to get dark.

 Mailee reading us a book.  I couldn't make out one word she was saying, but man was she telling us all about it!

We finally moved outside in preparation for fireworks.  My parents live outside of the city limits, so we can pop some right in the driveway!

Mailee had more fun pushing her chair around.  She probably went up and down the driveway fifty times!

She stopped to give us the "I hear something loud" face when she heard the train.

Kaiden had a blast with the "poppers" you can throw on the ground.  When they hit the ground, it makes a loud POP and a small spark.

Uncle Buck watching over the fireworks.

After a bit, Mailee decided these popper things were pretty cool too.  She had more fun stomping on them.

We got out the computer to Skype with Daddy and show him all the fun we were having.  Mailee was super excited to see him!

Kaiden trying out a sparkler.  I was always super scared of these things as a kid (even though I still did them anyway) but he didn't seem bothered by them.

When it got dark enough, we lit the first Roman Candle.

Posing for the camera.  I could just eat him up!

Watching the excitement.

Sparkler fun

Love this picture of Gigi.  Wish Mailee was looking....

We had A TON of sparklers.  I had to get creative on how to use them all...

Mailee even took a turn.

We knew Tante was coming in a few days, so we saved some fireworks for her too.  I felt they needed to be included in this post even though it technically wasn't the 4th of July anymore...

Tante looking quite suspicious as she prepares to light the fireworks.

While we waited for it to get dark (it gets dark WAY later in Amarillo than in Houston), the kids chased each other around.  I love to watch them play together!

Love those Amarillo sunsets!

I love this picture of her.  I just love the way she runs.  I can just see her bobbling along now....

I love this one because I can just see her spunk and personality here.  Love this girl!!!

GranSan noticed she had her tongue out all night.  She was right!

Kaiden loved counting how many "sparks" we got from each Roman Candle.  Our first night they all had five, but the second night we had some fancy ones that all had TEN!  That was an exciting discovery!

In case you don't know what a Roman Candle does, imagine this, about 5-10 times.  :)

Kaiden with time lapse sparkler fun.

Tante with time lapse sparkler fun!