Happy Late 4th of July

I just realized that I never posted the 4th of July pictures. Bad me! That's what happens when you go on a vacation and come back to a very busy holiday week where Erik is busy almost every night. Then, of course, I got sick, and forced my self to get feeling better for Elizabeth's birthday party (which I haven't posted either...oh brother) then I had another relapse into sickness after my busy Sunday substituting in Nursery...need I say more. Anyways...
We had a very busy 4th of July. I volunteered to play with the Fort Gordon Band for their 4th of July concerts, and that left me scrambling to get babysitters during practices and performances, which was fun. Luckily the wives of other band members helped me out and watched the kids. Not to mention my wonderful friend Tina who after taking my kids for MOST of the week-end that I was away, she even watched them for me during the performance at Fort Gordon! Thanks Tina! For great pictures of her kids and mine enjoying the concert check out the Bastian family blog (link to the side of my blog) She got some great pictures of me playing and as soon as I get them I will put them on here.
So on the 2nd of July, I traveled with the band to Barnwell, SC for a performance, then we played at the 3rd of July celebration at Fort Gordon.

The band had to set up this temporary stage thing to carry their sound out to the crowd. It took forever to set up and take down, which they had to stay after the fireworks to do. This is probably the biggest performance of the year for the Fort Gordon band since there are a lot of people there for the fireworks!

I could have played for the 4th of July celebration at the Riverwalk but I decided that I had taken enough advantage of my friends good humor to push another performance. I was glad I didn't since it POURED rain on us!
Here is the Fort Gordon Jazz Band playing right before the rain started.
The kids had fun on the water rides. I didn't bring anything for them to change into, so they went down in their clothes. It was really warm, until the rain started, but by then the kids were already so wet they didn't mind the rain.

The kids got their faces painted, which didn't last long since as soon as the rain started they got all wet and the pictures washed off.
We got very wet, but stuck it out through the fireworks, which started a whole new round of allergies for me. Oh joy!

On the 5th of July we had a BBQ at our house and set off fireworks in the front. It was really fun to get to know some new families and of course hang with our good friends the Bastian's.Jordan got a little scared and had to turn to Daddy for some love, but then he was right back out there with the rest of the kids!Here is Erik and Jeremy Bastian getting ready to light the next round.