4th of July and then some

Since Independence Day landed on a Sunday this year we did most of our celebrating on July 3rd. We started the day by going out to breakfast than headed downtown for the Jazz Festival. Iowa City has a great pedestrian mall area with all kinds of vendors, restaurants, and shops. There is also a playground and fountain here, which is where we spent most of our time before going to listen to the live Jazz music. Rhees loved the fountain and was soon soaked. Aleq, however, was a bit more reserved and preferred to splash in the small puddles close by. After the Jazz festival we headed over to a park for more live music. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was performing a free concert that night in the park, so we packed a picnic dinner and finished the evening listening to great music, dancing a little bit, and catching lighting bugs. The city did a parade and fireworks on Sunday and since this is our Sabbath day we missed out on that, but on Monday we got together with some friends and the kids decorated their bikes and we had a mini parade. Since the boys don't have bikes they shared with the other kids. They had a blast riding bikes in the rain and we all went inside for hot dogs. I have to say it was a pretty perfect holiday.

Rhees having a ball in the Ped Mall Fountain

Aleq needs a bit of convincing from Dad

Now he's got it.

Rhees at the end of the day

Getting ready for the kid parade

Rhees loved riding around the neighborhood

Real boys ride pink tractors

Dancing in the park to Nitty Gritty Dirt Band