Good Ol' Fashioned 4th of July Fun

The community here in Maryland has a big celebration for the 4th of July. Because it's a residential area, there is no major commercial involvement, it's just good fun activities. It gives me fresh perspective on how holidays are to be spent, that we can truly enjoy ourselves without having to spend a whole lot of money to go to some festival, (or in my case, run the festival,) for the 4th. Not that I don't enjoy a big deal now and then, but I think that's just how things work in Utah. Here in Maryland, we watched the kids have some relays after a local singing group did a few patriotic songs and raised the flag on Friday the 3rd of July. There were several other activities going on, too, but we did our own thing instead. The kids had a great time in the relays.Gavin lucked out for the relays, as his partner Henry and he won a medal every single race! (It helps when you don't have many competitors in your age bracket.) I think they had a lot of fun, Gavin liked winning the medals the most. Here they are doing the back to back race.Gavin and Henry show off one of their many medals from the day's events. There is an actual prehistoric shark's tooth fossil glued to each one! The teeth were all found out on the beach here. After storms, fossils wash out of the cliffs around the bay, and I have been searching for a shark's tooth (without luck) since I got here. At least Gavin got quite a few! Lexie had quite a few competitors in the 6-7 year old group. She spent most of the races paired with Emma, like the wheelbarrow one here.

Frustrated that she hadn't received any medals and that Emma had found a new partner for the last relay, the egg toss, Lexie paired up with Hadleigh and won 3rd place! She got a nice shark's tooth medal too.

The highlight of the 4th of July here is the Turtle Race. Yes, with real turtles. We searched high and low to find a turtle, but they must have been hiding with all the sharks' teeth. (We really did try! I had the kids totally donned for deep woods explorations in long pants tucked into their socks and heavily coated with bug spray...we looked so geeky, but we were on a mission to find a turtle! We searched the beach and the local swamp and all the roads in between for hours.) But even though we had no turtle of our own to cheer on, we thoroughly enjoyed watching the other families' turtles race. And then after the race, the kids got to hold the turtles. Lexie and Gavin had a lot of fun with the shelled reptiles, it was a highlight of the day. Nicholas had fun with Daddy and got to play on the swings and in the grass. He also enjoyed pulling leaves off of the trees.

On the 4th, we opted to get some exercise and go on a bike trail as a family. It was a fun way to see "America the Beautiful," and we all enjoyed it.

We went two miles up and two miles back, and poor Gavin's little legs were pumping at least twice as fast as the rest of ours, as his bike tires are much smaller. But although he was very tired, he did it, and made it back! Way to go, Gav! You may also notice that Gavin's helmet looks like a dirt bike helmet. Let just say that he's a bit top heavy, and too many face plants off the bike meant we wanted to prevent any more damage to his teeth.

The halfway point rest stop.

Cole had the best seat in the family, and got to cruise around while Dad did all the work. He had fun!

The bike ride was a fun way to see more of Maryland. It felt strange, though, to have the 4th of July come and go with no parade. You would think that being this close to the Nation's Capitol meant that there would be a parade somewhere in Maryland...I really could not find one. But there were fireworks displays, so we finished off our celebration by going to Solomon's Island. They float a barge out on the river and send the fireworks off there. We viewed them from the shore. The kids had fun with their glow necklaces, and it ended a nice 4th of July for us. Happy Birthday, America!