4th of July!

 Every year, my uncle Mark and aunt Christa kick off the festivities with a party on July 3rd. Tony, Charlie and I were in attendance this year. Tony took Charlie home for bedtime, and I stayed for some quality family time.

Here I am with my mom, godmother/aunt Diane and cousin Jacque! I stayed out WAY later than I'm used to, so I was pretty tired the next morning.

4th of July has always been a big deal in my Smidt family. My grandma Jeannette absolutely loved the 4th! Since my Grandma has passed away, it has been a little bittersweet. This 4th was filled with TONS of cousin time, and it was the happiest one since Grandma left us.

Tony somehow snagged an EA (excused absence) from work yesterday, so he could join us! After morning nap, we headed to Florence Park to check out the fun Arts in the Park, kiddie carnival and fair food! Uncle Will came down early and went to the park with us too. While we were there, we ran into even more family! My mom walked down with my cousin Jacque. Jacque snapped this cute picture of us at the park. Charlie LOVED the petting zoo and he so badly wanted to ride the rides. Maybe next year!

After we were at the park, we headed to my Oma Kathe's for a picnic. Charlie ate like a champ! I don't think I've ever seen him eat this much before! He actually ate more than I did! After a big lunch, Tony took him home for a nap. It was nice that Tony offered to do that, so I could spend some quality time with my cousins. He's such a good hubby :)

While Tony and Charlie were napping, I headed back to the park with my female cousins. We had to do a little picture taking...

The boy scouts made some fun cutouts for pictures!

 The girls!

We all gathered at Grandpa's for a bit of a snacky supper before heading over to watch the parade together. Just like last year, Jon, Mindy, Natalie and Harvey were able to join us. Poor Harvey was guarding his candy from me the whole time so I wouldn't steal his Tootsie Rolls! The parade started at 6:30pm, but we sit way at the end of the parade route. I think it was after 7 before the parade actually reached us. Charlie usually is in bed at that time, but he did such a great job! He stayed until the end and was such a good boy! I wish I would've gotten a picture of the kids together, but I did snag a few other pictures at the parade.

Looking pretty tired here!

But he perked right up when freeze pops were thrown our way! 

All smiles after the parade. 

Tony again was such a loving husband and took Charlie home to bed so I could stay at Grandpa's and watch the fireworks with my cousins like I always do. Here are the female cousins doing our infamous elbow train. We went in order of youngest to oldest. You may be wondering who the brown haired girl on the end is, and that's my cousin Matt's girlfriend. She's absolutely wonderful, so we just had to include her in our shot!

The cousins in attendance minus Matt. He went MIA right before pictures.  Tyler and Nathan left after lunch, so they are also not pictured.

Just to let you know how dedicated we cousins are to our mini donuts and cheese curds, we waited in line for over 45 minutes to get some! Here's our selfie! It was some excellent cousin bonding! 

We ended our big 4th by renting the Stewartville pool today from 12-1. Since I was single momming it while Tony worked, I didn't capture any pictures. Charlie had a blast swimming with Grandma Becky and Grandpa Buck! He dove under twice and wasn't so sure about that, but no tears!