Fourth of July in Valley Mills, Texas

This year for the Fourth of July we decided to drive northwest of China Spring about 20 miles to a small town called Valley Mills for a parade and fireworks. We woke up a bit late and got to the parade about 15 minutes before it started which turned out the be great! We found spots at the end of the parade and were one of the last ones to park so getting out of there and back home was easy! We missed most of the traffic. Now this definitely wasn't the Macy's Day Parade or even a parade like we'd watch back in Phoenix for the Tostitos Bowl but it was sufficient for Gabe to get a little bit of candy and to see a few fire trucks.

Here we are waiting for the parade to start. Gabe's in a forced smile phase, but I'll take what I can get.

Squinties swore it was too bright to smile here even though it was rather overcast outside. 

My 32 week pregnant belly is hidden behind Gabe in this picture. 

Once the parade got started, Gabe happily waved to all the passersby.  

He was especially excited for the firetrucks.

But the real action began when people started throwing candy. 

There was a total of one legitimate float in the parade, but we enjoyed the covered wagon, old tractors and horses too.

That afternoon we invited over a few family friends for dinner. We all grilled and enjoyed each other's company. I made homemade chocolate and oreo ice cream that was delicious. 

Gabe was most excited for that night when we got to go see the "sparkly" fireworks. We had been talking about the fireworks for about a week beforehand and Gabe was asking every morning if it was the day we got to go.  We headed back to the town of Valley Mills to try and get a seat at their baseball fields for the show. We were positive that because we left a little bit late we were either going to miss the show, not be able to find a seat or both. 

We got to the baseball fields about 20 minutes before the show started and to our surprise most people were tailgating or sitting near their cars and the baseball fields were surprisingly not crowded at all. We saw the fireworks were set up in the outfield of one of the baseball diamonds and so we sat just behind the dug out.

We spread out our jean blanket with a pillow for Gabe to lay on and put up some camping chairs and got to watch a 30-40 minute show in front row seats! Gabe turned to Devin and said, "I can't believe my eyes!" as the show started. He watched the whole thing and was so excited. Annie thought the fireworks were a little bit loud but she seemed to like them well enough. We brought rice krispy treats courtesy of Devin with red and blue m&ms in them for a treat.  They started the show and ended it with a cannon sounding firework that we literally felt the sound was so loud and in true Texas fashion the guy in charge also shot a blank from his rifle at the beginning. 

We almost left early to try and avoid traffic but we were able to get out of there fairly fast. On the drive home we had our windows down (still no A/C in the Kia) and it was nice and cool outside. We talked about how great the show was and determined that small town 4th celebrations are generally the absolute best.