4th of July

The 4th of July has become one of my favorite holidays.  The Harrisburg 4th of July activities have really grown over the past 10 years and for at least the past 8 years we've been going to the parade with our friends Becca & Jason and Kelly & Paul - and now their children as well.  This year Jason is working for the Harrisburg fire department and got to park one of the fire trucks near us and had a 50 foot American flag hanging from the ladder!  So, it wasn't hard to find us at the parade this year!  Here are some pictures from the parade:



Another 4th of July tradition for the past few years has been a birthday party for our friends Becca & Jason's kids Braden and Katie. Braden's birthday is in July and Katie's is in June, so they do a combination birthday party for both of them on the 4th of July. Even though we're probably the only people at the party who don't have kids we love hanging out with everyone and enjoying both the kids birthday and the 4th of July. This year I forgot to bring the kids gifts to the party (they don't usually open them at the party, but I still felt bad forgetting.) so we brought their gifts over the next day and got to see them open them and play with them for awhile. Here are some pictures from their birthday party:


Last year we were able to watch the Harrisburg fireworks from Becca and Jason's house, but this year they changed where the fireworks were shot off so we couldn't watch from their house. Chad and I decided to walk down to the Harrisburg park to watch the fireworks. The festivities have grown so much that it's pretty overwhelming with the huge numbers of people at the park for the activities and fireworks. One the one hand I'm glad that the Harrisburg 4th of July celebration has grown, but on the other hand I kind of miss when it was smaller and less crowded. Here are a few pictures of the Harrisburg park festivities: