July 4th

July 4th was one of my not so awesome ideas. We gave it an awesome effort though. Derek had it off this year and it was officially his first holiday off here in Texas so I was all ready to do something just memorable! It was memorable for sure. I used to love parades as a kid where they would throw candy and you could wave and have fun music playing that you could dance to. There was suppose to be a big parade for the city of Schertz so I thought it would be a great way to spend the morning. We got all red, white and blue and off we went. We got parking super close because we were early, but little did we know once you park everything is blocked off until the parade is over. 

To be frank the parade was an epic disaster. It had barely any music, it was already 90 degrees at 8 am, and there were zero treats for the kids. They had zero interest in watching the people go by and I don't blame them because I had zero interest in being there. There was nothing fabulous to keep our attention! We waited through a 5k race, then it took forever to start and then the dang parade didn't end for over an hour and a half!!! What parade lasts an hour and a half! We left about 45 minutes into it and tried to get in the car, but realized there was no side exit from the parking lot we were in and then we had to find a bathroom and a playground because the kids were done. Did I mention the 90 degree heat wave at 8 am? Ya. Flop.

But my hopes were high as there was suppose to be a big bash at the park after. We were able to finally leave the parade around 11, yes 3 hours later, and grabbed McDonalds and went home for a nap. Being hot and miserable is exhausting. We braved going back to the park for the "carnival rides". They were suppose to have a fun kids section. When we got there it was a disaster again. It was creepy, broken down, carnival rides in the dirtiest part of the park, no bounce house and it was $4 for one ticket! We walked around hoping for something any redeeming factor and there was none. This huge entire park was filled with people in lawn chairs BBQ'ing in the now 100 degree weather waiting for fireworks that night... No entertainment at all. We paid for one merry-go-ride that Kael's didn't even go up and down and left. At this point we were feeling defeated, so Derek got the idea of pie and slurpies. 7/11 slurpies make everyone feel better and cool you off.

We went home and cooled off for a bit, had some dinner, and took off for fireworks. There was no way we were going back to that awful park full of probably drunk people.

We found a great spot on the air force base to park our car that would have a good view. This was the first year we were letting the kids stay up late to see the fireworks. We waited forever, and had some good friends wait with us. When they finally started they lasted forever and the kids were done after about 15 minutes. There was no music to go with it. Just one firework at a time slow and steady for over an HOUR! We got done again and were eaten alive by ants and mosquitos! It was awesome... They finally did the finale as we were driving off base and did more than one firework at a time. We have learned we will need to go somewhere different if we are going to have a better 4th of July experience here in Texas... I think the kids still had fun though. We tried so hard!

Lesson learned!

We even brought bags for candy. :(