Celebrated with a BANG!

We had a great holiday! My mom came to town the night of the 2nd... so we had the 3rd to get stuff ready. On the 3rd, Jessie came down, Ryan got off early and we all headed down to Rock Island's District for Red, White, and Boom. The Wagner's met us there.-- They are our neighbor's from down the street. (Quentin, Paula, Elli & Jess) The girls has a blast getting their faces painted, getting balloon animals, going down the slide & jumping in the air jumper thing. As it started to get dark we headed over to mom's to watch the fireworks and have snacks. The girls had a "dance party" with Laurie Berkner's DVD. The fireworks went off at 9:30 and were great. We could see them off mom's balcony and had a great view. They shot right over a buiding with an American flag and the bridge in the background-- very good! (I tried to take pictures, but didn't get very good ones!!) Thanks mom for having us over, and thanks to the Wagners for celebrating with us!

The 4th was another busy day... we went to Bettendorf for the parade. Hallie got a ton of candy! It was a nice parade. Then we headed off to the Fishing Derby... It was hot, Ryan was getting tired and hungry and we weren't catching anything. Ryan gave up and headed to Transformers the movie (he gave two thumbs up). Jess and Hallie didn't give in. They kept fishing!! And.... CAUGHT ONE!! Low and behold.... the award winning one!! (all the kids were cathing the little sun fish and they caught a catfish-- a meatier fish) Hallie got FIRST PLACE in the derby. She was soooo proud of her trophy!-- and her new Spiderman pole! Thanks Jess for your help!! After the derby we headed home to get cooled down. Later that evening we took Hallie back to go on some rides & watch the band. While we were there we picked up some snakes (firework things). We were home by 8, grilled out and did our little fireworks. It was a great end to a fun weekend! Enjoy the slideshow-- there are a lot of pictures to see :)