The Morrisons

4th of July parade in Kellogg.

The Grand Marshall was a veteran of Pearl Harbor.  The kids know all about that from history last year.  Jordan was pretty impressed and said that was his favorite part of the parade.

Stephen

They also had a fair area with food tents and games to play.  We walked around in there for a while, but apparently I didn’t take any pictures.  While walking around, we saw one of the princesses that was in the parade, and the girls all ran up and gave her a hug.  I wish I had gotten a picture of that!  Right next to the fair area was a Vietnam Memorial, which was where the cannon and the Wall of Honor were.  We also read about Vietnam last year, so the kids were interested to see the wall.  They’ve seen pictures of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.  (Jordan wants a poster of the famous painting of the veteran leaning against the wall for his room.)  This wall was done similar, with the names engraved into the stone, but obviously different colors.

Fireworks!  It doesn’t get dark here until almost 10pm (and the sun is up by 5am…I’ve never lived this far north before.)  Terry took the older three to see some fireworks nearby, and we also did a few sparklers and snakes outside.  Amber was too tired by this point to have any fun, poor girl.

Our first day of school is always the first weekday of July, so Amber’s 5th birthday landed on her first day of Kindergarten!

We had a birthday luncheon here for Amber and Terry.  It is so beautiful here!  Terry and I keep joking that we’d better take it in while we have the chance, because the next place we live might be someplace ugly!

Amber picked out the cake.  Terry decided he wanted to do a joint birthday party; I think this is because he wanted his presents a week early.

She got an Aurora doll and a Merida doll.  She is pretty excited about them!

We barbecued hot dogs right next to this beautiful river!

Terry decided he needed a picture of me eating.

Terry found a wasp nest and got it down for us (and made sure there weren’t any wasps inside).  The kids all enjoyed holding and looking at it.  And here’s for all you Wives and Daughters fans: “He brought me a wasp nest once!”

Stephen and his fish.

The kids all jumped to a little ‘island’ in the middle of the creek.  The water wasvery cold, and Amber couldn’t jump back across (the bank was higher than the island, so she got across the first time, but couldn’t get back).  Jordan carried her across, but was not happy with me for taking a picture of it!