4th of July

I think that two of my favorite holidays are becoming 4th of July and Thanksgiving (with New Year's Eve close). Obviously Christmas is a great one and a holiday I enjoy, but there always seems to be so much going on. Thanksgiving has become a holiday for us in which we simply sit on our butts, eat, and watch tv all day (reruns of the Office and football are our viewing of choice). 4th of July is just a great day that we spend with many of our best friends here in Iowa. We start out the day going to the parade in Grandview, IA. Grandview is a smaller town than Muscatine and their parade is a little better and shorter. I honestly don't like parades all that much, but the kids love getting the candy.


After the parade, we go to our friends house and spend the day listening to the greatest hits of the 70's on Sirius radio, talking, playing bocce ball, corn hole, volleyball, and whatever else we can think of. Most of the women and kids then go to the Muscatine parade (which is later in the afternoon) and the guys stay back and get the grill going. No, it doesn't take 6 of us to fire up the gas grill, but it is the only excuse we could think of to not have to go to another parade. Everyone gets back from the parade and we eat. We eat a lot! And the food is outstanding.
After we have gorged ourselves and played a few more games of ????, we head down to the riverfront and watch the fireworks show over the Mississippi. When the fireworks are over, we go home and have our own display with the kids doing lots of sparklers and the older kids doing some high explosive stuff. When the fireworks are done, we sit around a campfire until July 5th. It is a great day!!