Happy July 4th!!!

We love holidays, and July 4th is no exception. This year we went with our friends the Chappells to Schertz, TX to be with Joel's family. First, we went to the city's parade. When we got there it was raining, which shouldn't have been a surprise because it has been raining and raining for weeks now. It doesn't make for the best parades, but we did have fun watching it from our car. Payden was also kind enough to dirty a diaper while we were watching, so we got to enjoy the parade to the smell of a poopy diaper. With it raining outside, we couldn't roll down the windows, and there wasn't a trash can in site. We were definitely glad when the parade finally finished.

Lula came along, too, but wasn't impressed with everything, so she curled up at my feet and went to sleep.

After the parade, we went to Joel's parents' house where we played games, ate BBQ (it isn't the Fourth without some BBQ), wrestled (the boys . . . not the girls), played with the puppy, and talked. After some of the kids took naps, we split up. The boys went to Joel's house to play Halo, while the girls and the kids went to Schertz's carnival or "carmel" as Taylor called it. The rides and games were a bit pricey, but we went on a few of them. Shelby and Taylor ended up being scaredy-cats. Shelby at least went on some of the rides, but didn't enjoy them. Taylor refused to go on the rides. She tried, but got too scared every time.

It was actually torture, watching Shelby on this ride. She looked miserable the entire time. She didn't want to spin and, every time she passed the ride operator, he would spin her. Finally on the last 2 times around, he heard her pleas to not be spun. It really was awful to watch, but she didn't freak out and cry and just took it, which I was proud of.

Shelby did attempt the jumping ride, but just sat on the side, letting herself be bounced around by all the kids around her.

Shelby finally found something she liked - one of those things like a McDonalds where you climb a rope ladder, crawl through the tunnel, and slide down the slide.

Taylor did try to go on the spinning car ride, but ended up getting off and just watching. She wanted to try the train ride, but of course the ride operator decided to take a break the moment we got there.

She would only look at the bouncing ride.

She attempted to get on the climbing thing, but chickened out. She ended up not riding anything.

With all the mud (oh it was MUDDY), Payden only got to sit in the stroller and eat, which she seemed content to do.

In the end, they got patriotic fake tatoos from a lady, which brought smiles to their faces. It was muddy and the girls were scared of most of the games, but we did have fun.

Afterwards, we went swimming, which made everyone happy and cleaned us of the mud and the sweat from the carnival. Shelby actually put her face under water, repeatedly, which was exciting. We are having to slowly get rid of all their swimming fears. Oh the life of parents.

Anyways, after swimming, we met up with the boys and went to one of the safezones to try and do fireworks. It was muddy, grassy, crowded, smokey, LOUD, and rainy, so we went home without doing any fireworks. The only ones we saw were the ones we drove by in the car. Not the perfect ending, but it was still a fun day with family and friends.