Upon our return from Sunriver, I furiously washed clothes and re-packed in preparation for Hazel and I's trip to Mom and Dad's cabin in Sunlands for the 4th of July. Poor Barkernews was on call, so he couldn't come. Nate and Marissa were on baby watch. Ritchie was chillin' by himself and Clayton was working at camp in Wisconsin. That left the hard core 4th of July celebrators- Mom, Dad, Ailey, Hazel and myself- to live it up for everyone else.
Honestly? I wouldn't say we "lived it up". I mean, we're not 19 anymore (with the exception of Hazel who has yet to be 19). We did, however, partake in a justifiable amount of birthday celebrations for our dear country and relax a lot in the sun.
We began our festivities with the Sunlands kiddie parade. You haven't seen a kiddie parade until you've seen the Sunlands kiddie parade- kids on ATVs (sans helmets), kids on golf carts (sans adults), kids on large floats with swimming pools and water slides (no joke) and little 'ol Hazel in her wagon, dressed to kill.
Watching my dad fix the wagon and giving directions:
Pre-parade. Hazel wants to know where she can get one of those ATVs:
Well, we certainly didn't win any awards, but a good time was had by all and included fudgesicles and ribbons.
Next up on the weekend agenda was some boating. Original plans included water skiing, but the wind off the river was cold and the river was even colder. So we just drove around and stared at the wildlife:
On the actual 4th of July, Ailey and decided to get off our arses and run the Cherry Bomb Run in George, WA. There was only one small problem: we thought it was a 5K. It was actually a 10K.
Ouch.
We both ran anyway and we both finished with respectable times, but seriously, why isn't that run a 5K?
Of course, to reward ourselves, we watched the George parade and spent some time celebrating at their festival by eating BBQ, visiting the petting zoo and watching the Line Dancing Grannies. I can think of no better way to celebrate.
To finish the three-day weekend off, Haze and I headed straight for Seattle, hoping to see my niece or nephew. No dice. More to come.