4th of July!!

For the 4^th of July we journeyed about a half an hour from our house over to the town of Troy. (The towns out here seem to coordinate their festivals, there were no 4^th of July parades to be had in Libby) We staked out a good place on the parade route in front of the Perk (a coffee shop) and then went over to the hardware store to buy chairs J Being in front of the coffee shop also had the distinct benefit of having good coffee, breakfast burritos, huckleberry lemonade, and free airbrush tattoos. 

The parade started about an hour after we got there and it did not disappoint. It was dominated by old cars, making their way to the car show at the park that was part of the festivities and a whole ton of fire engines from what seemed to be most of northwestern Montana.

The highlight (at least for me) was the troop of ladies doing a routine with lawn chairs. The highlight for the girls was definitely the fact that they gathered just as much candy as they generally do on Halloween.

After the parade we headed over to the park via the auditorium where they were making ornaments for the National Capitol Christmas Tree. By the end of the summer I am pretty sure that the girls will have made no less than 100 of these things…. I took a few pictures this time so we can go on a treasure hunt when we get back to DC and try to find them.

We caught lunch at the festival and the girls got their chance to go on the bungee jump trampolines again.  This time quickly doing multiple flips on each bounce.   

It was really, really, hot out by noon so we decided to cap off the day with a trip to Door Skeels, which is a recreation/camping site at the end of Bull Lake. It was the perfect respite from the heat!

We bought some sparklers the day before, so come sunset we were ready for a little homemade fireworks show. We decided not to either make the trek back to Troy or to stay up until 11 pm for the fireworks show (it is rough when you are in the land of the almost midnight sun…)