July 4th

This year, we took a drive up to "Mayberry, USA" (Mt. Airy) because we heard that they have a great parade that's not loaded down with a bunch of political junk; just a good, old-fashioned, small-town parade. And they were right. Having never been there, we didn't know quite what to expect, but it was a very nice little town. I will say that they LIVE off the Andy Griffith tourism stuff, but it's still not overdone.

The kids started their long, hot holiday with a fantastic red, white and blue berry parfait.

Once at the parade site, we settled in to await the start. The boys were already getting hot.

Emma looked tired and we hadn't even seen anything yet

Olivia waited with barely restrained glee.

 

Olivia waited as each car passed, hoping for some candy to be tossed out. She came home with quite a haul.

Yep, that's really Aunt Bee.

Ezra loved the big diesel trucks that were in the parade.

There were a lot of very pretty classic cars.

A very cool portable soda fountain. Too bad it wasn't stocked and open for business.

There were even a couple of bluegrass bands.

Ezra was excited about the firetruck right up until it blew its horn. It was loud enough to scare all of us.

Even the livestock got dressed for the occasion.

Olivia got her face painted.

Later that afternoon, we had some fun and games with friends.

We only had 2 potato sacks, so we did head-to-head sprints. The bag was almost big enough for Olivia to get lost in, but she did really well.

Rebecca took on a few of the kids and taught them important lessons in losing.

Even the old guys got into the act. It's not as easy as I remember, but it was just as fun.