Candy Parade

The Fourth of July found us up in Inkom, ID, visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Packard. We always love visiting them, and the kids love the candy parade. We only have to go round to the front of the house, it's so easy. There aren't floats so much as trucks, but there is a lot of taffy, and sometimes dumdums and tootsie or frootie rolls thrown. The horses are my favorite part, as well as Aubree's. RD is a great parade watcher, cheering and clapping for the trucks and cars going by, which embarrassed Reese, and Aubree imitated. He does usually get a lot of candy thrown at him ;)
Reese went off to the porch with Renée to hang with the non-embarrassing Grandpa and Grandma, and the rest of the kids got a lot of candy.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out under the tree in the backyard, enjoying the beautiful weather under the shade, the swings, the easy-going conversation with family. There was a trip to try fishing in the creek, a soccer game, and Aubree ran around with the other cousins her age. She discovered the power of bribery, giving candy to a younger cousin for 'being nice'. She likes to be in charge.
After dinner, we were driving home from Red Robin when RD put on one of his Billy Joel cds (our van is 11 years old, so it has a tape player and cd player) we cranked it up, and we all sang along to "Downeaster Alexa" and "we didn't start the Fire". I sang into a confiscated red balloon. Aubree wasn't sure if she should pout I was using it, or laugh at me. It was awesome.

We ended the night with some little fireworks. The kids threw pop-its as they jumped over the board, and ran through the smoke bombs, gagging on the smell and colliding once. The smoke always went for grandpa!
There were a few small fireworks they oohed and clapped for, then we ended with some 'safe sparklers'. Aubree got more and more scared as the sparkles came closer to her hand, but they didn't last long or get that close. The other kids had fun pretending they weren't Muggles, but then Reese had too much magic and his sparkler threw a small flame about 15 ft away! They got it out soon, and the show was over. It's a small set we get almost every year, but it's still fun!

The next day we were sad to leave, but had to get home to prepare for Aubree's birthday the next day.

Wish we had more time with them, we love being with them! We love their stories, their jokes and sense of humor, and what great examples they are. On the drive up the kids talked about Grandma's malts, and how no one can make them like her. We always joke with Grandpa about how Cameron gets up early with him, 6:30 am every day! Aubree joins them sometimes now.
Grandpa was telling Reese and I about some experiences he's had recently home teaching, and I remarked on how he has a lot of people who love him, and the truth of that really struck home to me as I said it. I live far away, visit a couple times a year, yet I know we all really love them. They're surrounded by family and friends who I can tell all love them, there were even  many people in the parade in their trucks waving and greeting them by name. They'll never admit to being great, and by many accounts may appear humble residents of a small Idaho town. Humble they may be, but mighty too. Pretty amazing what an influence a couple people can have on others. We sure love them.