4th of July Parade and Picnic

The small town of Stuart, NE has a tradition of celebrating the 4th of July. This year was no different and so we found ourselves lining the streets of Stuart ready for the floats, cars, tractors, horses, bands, ambulances, fire trucks, and of course the candy.

The girls got festive with their red, white, and blue leis.

People lined the streets of Stuart to see the parade. Our family takes up quite a stretch.

Gabriella was a little unsure of this parade thing, but she was ready to try it.

Bernadette and Clare have done this a few times, so they scrambled for the candy.

Felicity caught on pretty quickly.

The girls were really enjoying the parade this year. It was a beautiful day - not too hot, not too cold,
hardly a breeze, and no rain.

There was a Team Jack float that the girls enjoyed.

And then it happened. Since we first saw the trailer months ago, Felicity has been talking about
the Minions in Despicable Me 2. The look on her face could only mean one thing:

This made her day, though we think she wanted to bring one home. Guess what she will probably
want to be for Halloween?

A family tradition for years has been to go to the parade and then meet in the park for a pot-luck picnic. We eat and talk and have a great time. Knowing we didn't have long before we had to head back home, we enjoyed this last meal with family before heading home.

Felicity and her cousin Payton are two months apart. They get along pretty well and we hope they
will be great friends someday.

We have a lot of family and friends in Atkinson and Stuart, but this year we had kind of a low turn out at our picnic. It was still fun and a small turnout for us is still a decent sized group.

Grandpa Joe, Brody, and Aunt Annie

Mason, Cousin Laura, and Aunt Kylie in the foreground, more family in the background.

Uncle Buh, Uncle Jeremy, Kinsley, and Mason along with more family.

Ella thought this was awesome and wondered why we can eat food like this with her seat outside everyday.

Sadly, our vacation was coming to a close. We finished our meal, said our goodbyes, and then headed back to our house near Lincoln. With a four hour car ride ahead, our trip wasn't over yet, but we knew it was drawing to a close. We were all going to be glad to get home and get back to normal, but would miss all the fun we had and would want to remember it forever.