I just love the 4th of July in a small town. I love small towns (at least the ones I grew up in) and I love the extra sense of freedom they seem to have.
Jake and I have always assumed we'd raise our family in a small town but that hasn't been the case, and that's okay. The suburbs have been pretty great to us and the fact that we can visit family in small towns has been pretty great.
I knew the 4th of July would be different this year but I still wanted to salvage as much of our Independence Day as possible. So we headed to Colorado.
Turns out they were having a small, last minute, parade protest.
Patriotic nerd? YES!
I also recognize that I am the only one that thinks my kids with messy, chocolaty faces are cute! Jake is constantly wiping off their faces and it doesn't even cross my mind!
The parade was a lot longer and better than I was expecting! We were pleasantly surprising and the kids were super stoked they got candy!
Roxy really loves her Uncle "Raxton" and watched most of the parade from his shoulders.
A few days later Everett told me he really likes going to small towns to see all the old cars and animals. It didn't occur to me until now that he sees those during the parade :)
After the parade we headed to Vallecito. It was hard to find some ice for the coolers. It's strange how many things have been affected by covid.
We packed our patriotic lunch and went to kayak, paddle board, canoe, fish.
As soon as we got everything set up, it started raining.
It started raining a big, nice Colorado summer storm rain. Big, cold drops of rain with some lightning and thunder.
It kind-of felt nice to be cold!
Truthfully, we spent most of the time under the canopy waiting out the storm. But it turned out to be a pretty big storm. Big pools of cold water would splash on us as the fall off the canopy and soaked us.
The girls and I headed home but the boys and grandpartents stayed to wait it out.
Jake and Braxton did a couple to swing/jumps into the lake from a big tree/rope swing. I only saw a video of in... I'm glad I didn't see it in person because I probably would have been temped to try it in real life.
Although it wasn't a typical 4th of July, it was a pretty memorable one!