Fourth of July 2011

Wow, this summer is flying by! It is very hot here in south Texas, which is to be expected, but very dry as well. Due to the severe drought and wildfire danger, there were no fireworks to celebrate Independence Day anywhere near us. Actually, the whole holiday was kind of disappointing. But more on that in a minute. First, a patriotic dessert! Here's Abbey (in her Turbie Twist, she had just had a bath) enjoying some angel food cake with strawberries, cool whip and blueberries. Yummy and pretty!

On the fourth we drove about an hour to see Chad's performance. We had visited this same event a year ago, and had a pretty good time. That was not to be the case this time. The town's website said that the carnival would open at 10:00 AM. We got there around 11:00 to be able to ride a couple of rides before it got even hotter... only to find out the rides did not in fact open until 1:00 PM. 

Abbey was patriotic, but she was not pleased. 

Elliott exercises her freedom of dress by refusing to wear anything red, white or blue, or even a shirt and shorts that go together.

So we waited and waited and waited and finally got to watch Daddy's band perform. It was definitely the highlight of the day! Chad even had a short solo in one tune. 

Dimensions in Blue, jazz band of the Air Force Band of the West 

The rhythm section, being, um, rhythmic.

Abbey amused herself for a while by taking lots of pictures with my camera. This is a self-portrait. 

After the performance, we did go ride the Ferris wheel together, and each girl got to ride one other ride. Here's Elliott, taking a drive. 

After wandering around and being bored and extremely hot for two hours, and paying $18 (YES, $18) for 3 rides, and being disgusted by people smoking in the eating areas, we took ourselves to Chuy's and had a great meal, then went home and crashed. It wasn't a very festive Fourth of July, but at least we were all together! Maybe next year we will have more fun and some fireworks.