Happy Independence Day!!

He's not praying, he's sleeping!! After being up late with us lighting off fireworks Tuesday night, Grant was up at 6:30am on the 4th of July!! He played and did everything he could to stay awake, but when he slowed down enough to eat, he finally crashed. He was fairly upset that I took him out of his chair to go lay down for a nap, but he felt MUCH BETTER afterwards.
Good thing, because it was time to go to the parade!! After an afternoon downpour (1 1/2 inches of rain in less than 2 hours), we weren't sure they would have the parade, but it went on anyway. The sun came out right before it started at 6pm. The hospital usually has an entry in the parade, but this was the first year they've had a real float. The theme of the parade was the Wild West, so our float took shape around that theme.
This is the back of the float and one of the hospital employees with her two daughters. They were in charge of handing out candy to the kids along the parade route.
This is how Grant spent the parade, riding on a stuffed horse!! He only would wear the cowboy hat for a picture and then he would only wear his sunglasses. We did put some overalls on him right before the start of the parade though, so at least he was a little bit cowboy. I sat on the hay bale next to him making sure he didn't fall off the back of the trailer and trying to get him to wave at the crowds every once in a while. He spent the time eating goldfish crackers and Teddy grahams and looking at all the people lining the streets to watch him ride his horse!This was Jared's assigned spot on the float. Don't worry, he didn't wear the hat. It looked too goofy. But he sat in the washtub with the scrub brush next to Grant the whole time. Some of our people who were handing out candy wished they'd had that job by the time the parade was over.
Here's Grant after the parade, riding on Great Grandpa Bybee's saddle. The doctors "rode" the sawhorses during the parade. We were really glad the rain stopped before we had to take the saddle out to the parade grounds. Jared didn't want it to get wet.
After the parade, we went to some friends' house near the park and lit off some sparklers with their kids. Grant loved them, but he almost set my hair on fire several times, waving them around. We haven't done the rest of the sparklers yet. Maybe tonight or this weekend some time. After that, we walked back over to the park for the big fireworks display. Jared and several others at the hospital who participated in the parade and float planning received special VIP tickets to the fireworks. This meant we had prime seating in the very best spot for watching fireworks that night. We were in the very front of the roped off section of the park and only about 100 yards from where they were setting off the show. I made popcorn balls and we took them with us to share with our hospital buddies and we watched the show with Grant. He loved everything except the whistling ones. He buried his head in Jared's shoulder every time those were set off. Eventually, he got bored with all the exploding lights and noises and decided that the music accompanying the fireworks was perfect for marching and dancing and singing songs at the top of his lungs. Then one of the teenagers let Grant play with her big stuffed dinosaur that she won at the carnival and he rode that around until the end of the fireworks show. I don't know if the people behind us liked watching the fireworks more or watching Grant. He was really a ham. I guess he's got some of those Love performing genes after all!!