4th of July

With the 4th of July falling during the middle of the week, we decided not to do any traveling. But we were still on the go! We had lunch with our friends the Riesbergs where Cade got to go swimming with Rylee.

Jim taught him this and I don't think Rylee was impressed!

Then we headed back to Waukee to watch the parade...

where we got to see many of Cade's faves, like cousins...
fire trucks...

tractors...
semis and suckers...
and even presidential hopefuls!
Okay, so Cade wasn't so impressed with the presidential hopefuls, but he did have a great time despite the fact that it fell smack dab in the middle of his nap time.

Then we headed home to get ready for our evening guests, the Case family along with Anne's dad and his wife who were visiting from Illinois. We finally put that wedding gift of an ice cream maker to use...
and Jim smoked a pork ROAST for pulled pork sandwiches. (It doesn't look real appetizing in this form, but it was delish!)
The kids killed time waiting for fireworks by playing in the sand and their "boat..."
while the adults relaxed.
We ended the evening by sitting on our deck and watching a fabulous display of fireworks put on by the Waukee Fire Department...this was probably the highlight of Cade's day...I think "ka-boom!" and "awesome" were the words he used to describe it. I have some video that I will post (once I figure out how!)