24th of July

Parade

{Kort grossing everyone out with his "hanging by a thread" loose tooth}



{Lily, hammin' it up.}

{and gettin' loves from Uncle Trevor}


{Jack and Papo watching the parade.}

{My yummy little guy, ALSO watching the parade.}

{They were throwing his favorite treat.}

{This is one of my favorite shots ever. Jack smiling at whatever is coming next, Julia and Cristi chatting it up, Uncle Ted Ted playing with Lily, and my parents sharing a big fat smoochie. I HARDLY meant to catch so much endearing family action...I was just trying to get a cute shot of Jack, but "family happy" just happened to be happening all around him.}


We drove down to Monroe with my mom, and after about the tenth (or possibly 20th) "Are we there yet?" or "How much loooooooooonger?" from Kortland, she (in truly AWESOME grandma fashion) offered to give him $10 smackaroos if he could go the rest of the car ride without saying a word. Ahhhhh.... so much better! He used the money to buy two Hermit Crabs...then talked Papo into (and by "talked Papo into" I mean "simply mentioned it once...") buying them a $15 cage that came complete with watering shell and feeding supplies. Then he talked Uncle Drew into (and by "talked Uncle Drew into" I mean "simply mentioned it once... and pinky promised him that he would let Sophie (Drew's dog) try to rip his nasty-loose tooth out with dental floss when we got to the family BBQ later that day...") shelling out (no pun intended) another $10 bucks and buying him TWO more Hermit Crabs... Boy oh boy is he a lucky boy.

A favorite sequence from the day:



The following parade entry was fairly brilliant (in my humble opinion) and was by far my most favorite parade entry, well, ever. A bunch of dads formed a "Drill" team. Priceless. Their little act came complete with full, drill-propped choreography, and even a kick line. Impressive.




{Lily was a fan.}

{Unwrapping, and then eating, his 15th tootsie roll}



Cake Walk

{Wiggling his nasty-loose-tooth and waiting for the music to start.}

{Walking....walking... sit! And the winner is....KORTLAND! No surprise there. This kid wins everything!}

{This is his "Yesssssssssssss!" Face}


Hangin' at the Fairgrounds.

{Trying to pull out the nasty-loose-as-in-hanging-by-a-flipping-THREAD-kind-of-loose-tooth.}

{Sophie's cute little mug - resting on a can of sunscreen - and Lola's swollen Hobbit feet. Such contrast in this shot...}

{Uncle Ted Ted - refusing to take a nice, respectable-like 24th of July Photograph with his beautiful wife. It's nice to know that some things never change...}


Fish Rodeo!!
{Waiting for the rodeo to start is always the hardest part! So Kort chants "let's get this show on the road" -type-chants to pass the time.}

Then he splashes...


Mugs it for the camera...


zones out and daydreams about catching the biggest fish in the lot...

And nervously twiddles his fingers against his chest...

Then comes the fish truck!

{Man that nasty-loose-hillbilly tooth is KILLIN' me! ha ha! I want to yank it out!!)

GOT ONE!

{Then Kort gave another fish to his cousin - who hadn't caught one yet. Awwww.... slimy fish kindness. Does it get any better than that?}


Then Kortland delighted everyone with some sort of happy-fish-sharing-jig. Quite impressive

{AND... as if a dead, slimy fish wasn't enough to round out any truly wonderful 24th of July celebration, Kort also found a skunk foot...then a skunk tail... and a set of dead cow jawbones while on a mini-hike with Uncle Drew - Yay!!!}


It was a truly wonderful day.
Can't wait to do it again!!
{Only 363 more days...}