4th of July 2011

I was pretty excited to be in Philadelphia, the birthplace of our country, for the 4th of July.  It was in Philadelphia that the Founding Fathers met and drafted the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. What better place could we possibly have celebrated Independence Day?

 

Before the 4th we watched fireworks at two different people's houses. We wanted to make the most of the festivities!

Lily was actually pretty scared of the fireworks, which really surprised me since she doesn't seem to be afraid of anything.

Here she is standing back from the group so she could get as far away as possible.

On the 4th of July we went downtown to see the parade. We rode the train and when we got downtown there was a local grocery store (which was actually the parade sponsor) handing out flags, hats, and cold drinks.

 After we got our hats and flags we walked to the parade route.  Kobe is sporting his new hat!

 All the kids that were there waving their flags.

We got there early so we got a great spot in the shade.

It was by far the coolest parade I've ever been to. The patriotism of each float/band was abundant and very contagious.

The kids stood and waved their flags at all the floats, they were way into it!

 The parade really was awesome, which is why I took so many pictures! I put them in collages to spare you!

After the parade we rode the train home...

And then took naps! We were exhausted.

That night we went to a town close by for fireworks. We got there a little early so we posed for some pictures

and shared a funnel cake:

Kobe licked the plate clean for us.

Again the fireworks were awesome and Lily was fine as long as I covered her ears. We had such a nice day together as a family. I was grateful for the reminder that this is a great country we live in full of freedoms, and liberties that people in other countries don't have. I'm proud to be an American!