Happy 4th of July!

The morning of the 4th of July, we got up at 5:30 AM. I dropped off Shawna and Brandon so they could get registered for the Freedom Run 5K and then headed over to the Balloon Fest with the girls. I was surprised at how many people were up that early!
We actually made it early enough this year to watch the balloons take off. This is my favorite thing about the 4th of July.
And here is the famous pig. We used to live where the hot air balloons would fly over our house, and Samantha's favorite has been this pig for years! Amy loved it too and we had to chase it.



Here's Amy watching all the balloons. Then we hurried over to the finish line of the 5K to wait for Brandon and Shawna. Here's a video of each of their finishes (blogger won't let me publish them right now, so I'll post them later). I'm a little retarded and started tearing up after I saw Brandon--I'm so proud of him and he beat his last time. He ran it in 30 minutes and 45 seconds. Way to go!
And here's Shawna right after we found her at the finish line.
Such speed demons!
After the race, we headed over for the parade--it's the biggest one in the state.
We always watch the parade from my old job because it's right in the middle of it. And if we get hot, we can go inside and still see everything--not to mention great parking!
The best part of the parade are when the jets fly over. This year they had a lot more than I have ever seen, so it was really cool! Samantha thought the planes were a little loud!
Watching the parade. The girls loved the motorcycle cops (okay, maybe that was me!) and the big balloons and the princesses.
Curious George--a big hit with the kids!
Here's Amy getting ready to go to Blackfoot (see post below). After all the festivites, we all tried to take a nap and then had a BBQ and headed for Scott & Erin's house. We made it there about 6:00 p.m. and checked into a hotel for the night. Then we went to Scott & Erin's and met up with the rest of the fam and had another BBQ and fireworks.