The 4th of July. The day that Americans celebrate their independence. People get excited to wear a flag shirt, hat, shorts or even in some cases a flag bikini (why people do this I may never know). All kids get excited to see fireworks, hold a sparkler, and sing some American anthems. All kids that is, except my 2 little boys. All they cared about was seeing Spiderman. We woke up early to go to the Bristol, RI 4th of July parade. This particular parade has been held since 1785 and is the oldest continuous Independence Day celebration in the United States. We walked a little over a mile to find the perfect (only) standing spot to watch the parade go by. The boys stood in their matching Spiderman shirts unimpressed with much of the parade. The only time Russell felt the urge to wave/clap/look alive was when a cute girl waved at him from a float. Tell me that time is not here already!!? Soon our long wait was over and the man of the hour (or 3 hours) walked past. That was it. He walked past, the boys watched with their mouths hanging open, gave a little giggle, and then it was over.

They stood like this through almost the entire parade. Their shirts are the same, their hands are the same, their hair is the same, their stance is the same. They are such great boys!!

The reason we went to the parade...

Pirates!

Later that evening the Anderson family came to town and we headed down to WaterFire on the canal. It was a beautiful evening and we stayed downtown until 11:00ish. With 5 kids, that's really pushing our luck, but attitudes were good and I'm sure it felt nice to stretch their legs after such a long car ride.
The rest of their visit was spent doing the normal "visitor" activities (you will see, if you come, that we do the same thing with everyone! Next week we have a visitor coming who has already been here once, so we will have to come up with something new....stay tuned.)
We enjoyed a walk to the park and a couple of laps around the track. We had a picnic at the RISD beach (could not swim due to contamination from all the storms) and ran around the field for a few hours. The next day we went to the beach and relaxed in the sun and played in the water all afternoon. Our day at the beach was followed by strawberry picking and a lobster dinner. A good visit from the Andersons. It was great to be able to see Christopher before he is deployed and see how all the girls are growing.

Christopher and Quinn after a run around the track with Alannah and Alyssa bringing up the rear. Yes, little Quinn was trying to (and doing a good job) keep up with the big kids on the track.

Stacia and Russell coming around the last turn...

Chris bouncing the kids on the bridge.

Maxwell and R.C...

Alyssa and Alannah playing in the sand.

Russell trying to bury himself.

It was hard to get a picture of all 5 kids at the same time, but this one is pretty good...