Fourth of July 2014

The 4th of July in the Vail Valley is one of my favorite holidays of the year! After a great 3rd of July, we got to enjoy the Vail 4th of July Parade with our Young Life group. It is by the generosity of one of our donors that we are able to have this experience. He enjoys it with his family and this has been our third year in a row being a part of the parade. This year we brought both kids in the parade with us and they really enjoyed it. We had frisbees, sunglasses, footballs, cups, and candy to toss out! 

Pre-Parade Prep Time 

 

Hanging with my high school friends that walked in it with us! 

Macy was the hit of the first part of the parade. She loved passing out goodies. Only problem is that she could not pass out goodies as fast as the jeeps needed to keep moving! 

The whole Vail Valley Young Life crew

Vail Valley Young Life Staff

The busy streets of Vail during the parade. The close streets provide such  unique feel for a parade - I love it! 

After the parade, we stopped to see some friends. Macy loved playing with the "big girls" at the Leonard's house. 

The Talbots are always a great place to hang and relax. What a great view they have from their sandbox! 

 

July 3rd in the Vail Valley

The 4th of July starts a day early in the Vail Valley as Avon has their fireworks on the 3rd. Since it happened to be a Thursday night, the Beaver Creek Rodeo also happened to be taking place the same night! We made an evening out of it and the kids had a blast! 

Let's start with the picture of the night….Trevan, Macklin, and Macy enjoying the rodeo! We took a lot of pictures of them cheering on the cowboys, but the one below happened to be snapped by one of the photographers of the event. Word on the street says that it will be featured in the program for next season :) Keep you posted on that one. 

The kids with the BC Rodeo Queen (who is also an EVHS student and high school YL friend!) 

Enjoying time with friends, even with photo bombers that we don't know. 

Grabbing some ice cream before the fireworks. 

Avon Fireworks! While we do not live in a big city, these are big city fireworks! The kids really enjoyed them this year and watched the whole show! 

4th of July

Happy July 4th!!! I love this day of the year. It is a wonderful day to celebrate the wonderful freedoms that we expereince as Americans. I am so grateful that we live in a country where we have the ability to share our faith freely and enjoy God's creation. I love the red, white and blue. I love the patriot songs. I love the fireworks and parades. It is just such an enjoyable day for me. 

We met up with our Young Life family and friends in Vail to enjoy the parade together. I think next year we will get the whole family in the parade to represent Young Life. This year, Justin walked with the crew again and I stayed with the kids on the sidelines. 

Family Shots

  

My high school friend Angela, who happens to be the Beaver Creek Rodeo QUEEN! Her float was right behind the Young Life Float! 

Young Life Float - We had two loaded Jeeps from which they threw out some serious Vail Valley Young Life gear! 1000 beach balls, 1000 sunglasses, 1000 frisbees, and 1000 cups! We are getting the VVYL name out to all of the valley! Our area director also outfitted everyone with new patriotic VVYL shirts for the parade! 

Watching the parade with the Bakers and Bangtsons

My favorite performance - Trinity Church's "Stomp" Band

U-S-A!!!!

A real gondola car from the lifts was put on the float! This is the "Golden" car for the 50th anniversary of Vail. They don't mess around at this parade. It lasts over an hour with all of the floats that go through the village. 

These boys had so much fun together! 2012 is on the left and this year on the right. Mack and Trevan are growing up (even though Mack is rocking the same hat!)

Our friends James, Kendra, and Alyiah joined us as well! 

 

Rocking their new VVYL gear

 

Picnic at Beaver Creek - We enjoyed our dinner, a concert by Jack Ingram, and fireworks. Beaver Creek presented a fantastic fireworks display that the kids totally loved. We had a fast decline after though and kids were asleep in the stroller before we could get off of the lawn. The only bad part about the fireworks was the insane amount of time that it took to get off of the mountain. We were exhausted by the time we got home at midnight. Happy 4th to all! Can't wait until next year! 

Check out this spread!