4th of July - Silverton Edition

I love the fourth of July. It really is one of my favorite holidays. This year though takes the cake for fun. We again spent the Fourth of July in Silverton, CO which is about 30 minutes from our condos. Our day started at 7:30 with a 5K run benefitting the Silverton Youth Association. First of all Silverton only has about 1 - 2 graduating seniors each year so I am sure the youth association is in high demand. Second of all when they went to describe the 5K route to all the participants I about fell over when they said we had to run up the beginner ski slope on the ski mountain. I really thought they were kidding, but no - they were serious. Only 4 of our staff did the run: Will, Emily (a fellow ACU'er), Lance, and I. Will came in 1st in the whole race and Emily came in 3rd for the whole race. Yeah - they are way more serious runners than Lance and I.

Next up was the fourth of July parade. This parade consisted of a lot of ATV's, jeeps, and old fire engines. Apparently the town of Silverton went on ebay and bought all the old mardi gras beads b/c that is what they threw out to the crowd. Here is Nash giving the thumbs up for the fourth of July.

Being a small town with only a volunteer fire department at the end of the parade they had a water fight. The fire department divides into two and they turn on all the fire hoses and try and fight the other side back. It was awesome to watch. Directly after the water fight is the "rhubarb festival". Apparently all the people in town bake rhubarb pies, rhubarb crumble, and rhubarb bread for the festival and we get to eat it. Next came the ducky derby. The ducky derby is when they release a bunch of rubber duckies down the river and whoever's ducky comes in first gets a prize. The river banks were crowded with people and we just had a good time hanging out watching the happenings.

The last event of the day before fireworks is the old west gunfight show. I am sorry to say that I did not get to see the gunfight show b/c Beck was scared to death of the guns going off that we had to walk away.

As our normal tradition we tried to get family pictures made on the fourth by one of our staffers. This year's lucky winner was Brian who spent time trying to get us all to look in the same direction. Those pictures will have to come later due to the fact that they are still on Brian's camera.

While waiting for fireworks to start some of the staff worked on our yoga out in the baseball field. I just love the fact that it is July and we have to wear fleece. Here's to another great fourth of July.