Small Town 4th of July

Happy Independence Day to all of my fellow American folk! I wish that I had more pictures to share with you, but alas, Matt still has the nice camera on tour in California, so this photo will have to suffice! Do you like my 4th get up? It's missing the red cowboy hat that I was sporting this morning, but I'm still feeling festive in my white country girl dress.

Today my dad and I left the house early to go visit my brother Thom and his girlfriend Michelle's family up in Center Ossipee, New Hampshire. Michelle's family owns a sweet little breakfast place called the Iron Kettle. I put away three blueberry pancakes with crispy bacon, YUM! Sadly they did not have real maple syrup, but leave it to my dad to come to the rescue. He had a single serving syrup bottle in his car! Have syrup, will travel. The Duclos family doesn't mess around!

After eating, we settled in lawn chairs in front of the restaurant to view the Main Street, 4th of July parade. Believe it or not, this was the first 4th of July parade I had ever been to in my life! I had a blast watching the little ones closer to the sidewalk scramble for bits of candy thrown by the people on the floats. It was too fun.

My 10 month old baby nephew Aaron was taking in his first parade too! (Pictures from Thom's camera to come later). We danced and sang and had a grand old time.

On the way home with my dad, we jammed out to Johnny Cash: Live at San Quentin all the way down Route 16. The sun was shining for the first time in weeks, and even though we're supposed to get scattered thunder showers later, I wasn't about to dwell on it. It's moments like these that make life great. Small Town U.S.A at its very best.