Happy Fourth of July 2009

We were in Albuquerque for the Fourth of July this year. We had a great visit with friends and family. Saturday morning we woke up and rushed our way out the door to make it to the Rio Rancho Fourth of July Parade. We got a great spot on the curb and anxiously awaited for the parade to make its way down to us. Unfortunately, we all left a little disappointed. The coordinators of the parade would not allow anyone to throw candy. What is a parade without kids racing out to pick up handfuls of candy off of the street? What made it even worse is that probably 1/3 of the parade entries were politicians. Luckily there were some cool cars and motorcycles and a couple of dressed up characters but all in all it was a little disappointing. I am all about celebrating the independence of our country and God Bless America, however I just wish my kids would be able to experience the same type of parades I remember as a kid with decked out floats and yes candy being thrown from every entry.Our cousins



One of the cars stalled and had to be pushed, it was nice to see all of the crowd members pitch in to lend a hand.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the kids!

That afternoon we headed to Charlie's sister's (Robin) house to BBQ, swim and watch fireworks. Kadence had a blast swimming with her cousins and Cole enjoyed the water slide set up in the back yard. Our BBQ was temporarily put on hold while we got to experience one of Albuquerque's monsoon rains. Although the sky was gray it seemed like this storm came out of nowhere. The wind was whipping and it poured down hard! Twenty minutes later it was over with and we went back to our BBQ.

We had a great view of the Rio Rancho fireworks from Robin's house. We all sat out on the curb and enjoyed the bursts of color in the sky.Cole and Grandma Neilson enjoying the fireworks.

We had also all pitched in and bought the huge box of fireworks from Sam's Club so the guys took turns lighting those off. The kids all enjoyed the sparklers and poppers as always but Cole wasn't to sure of the other fireworks. He kept saying I scared and wanted to go inside. He finally warmed up to them a little but made sure to keep his distance.