4th of July

For tradition's sake, we started off this holiday with a 10k race in Huntsville. When we lived in the South, Greg and I would run the Peachtree Road Race in Georgia. I remember it being hard to run that race since thousands and thousands of people ran it. In fact, when it was my group's time to run, the people at the beginning of the 10k had already finished! Our local race here isn't quite as populated. Last year when I ran it, I was six weeks pregnant with Charlotte and also had a sinus infection. Needless to say, I didn't run very well. This year, however, I beat my goal time by 2 minutes.

Since the race was early in the morning, our friend Cathy watched the children. Below is Charlotte who is getting used to her bouncer. So far, she hasn't enjoyed it like Paton used to enjoy it when he was a baby. I have hope that she'll love it before long.

Also, a tradition started last year is our family attending the local festivities at our park. There are many things for children, booths where locals sell their wares, and competitions like the mutton bustin', chicken catch, pig catch, and fish catch.

I rode the caterpillar with Paton...it was a tight squeeze!

 
This year, Paton wasn't scared at all to bounce in the bouncy house!

He was, however, very scared to ride down the bouncy slide by himself...so Mommy to the rescue! It was also very hot, and even I burned my legs a bit on the plastic!

The last tradition is watching the fireworks from our back yard. Since one can view much of the valley from our yard, it's a perfect place to watch fireworks. Last year, I put Paton to bed early. This year, I figured he was old enough to stay up. It doesn't get completely dark here until 10pm.

The 4th of July has become one of our favorite family holidays. I love spending time together as a family, and it's even more fun now since Charlotte has joined our family.