Another Bridgeport 4th of July

I have to say, 4th of July is just about my favorite holiday. As I wrote about last year, Bridgeport does it up pretty darn big, especially given that it's just a little town of 850. This year was the 147th annual 4th of July celebration. Pretty amazing. With the 4th being on Friday, festivities started on the 3rd with a rodeo -- and, though it wasn't on the poster of events, Tracy Rockel's birthday party was that night, too. She's a good friend, and Jim bought the sporting goods store from her parents, Rick and Sharon, who he also worked for as a teen. She turned 35, and did a great job blowing out the candles.
Tracy collects crosses, and has a wall of them at her house. Missy found a somewhat large cross for her at an antique store in Yucca ... and did a little sacreligeous imitation when she loaded it into the truck before we went to the party. The folks at the party got quite the kick out of her entry into the party like this, too ... though Jim was nervous we'd all get struck by lightning.
Lacey made friends at the party with Tracy's niece, Sophie.
And she also enjoyed the blue cake icing.
The theme for the 4th of July parade this year was "Honoring Our Armed Forces," and Missy's mom designed an incredible float, complete with all my nieces and Missy's cousins dressed in various military clothing. Amanda, Missy's cousin, and Lacey posed for me in the morning before they headed to the parade line-up.
I've been working at Jim's sporting goods store -- there's sporting goods on one side and a gift shop on the other, and I'm in the gift shop four days a week (will do an entry on that down the road). I worked on the 4th, but during the parade, though we stay open, of course everyone is out on the street watching, so we get to just stand in the doorway and watch, too. The streets are always packed with people -- many folks start setting up chairs for good views as early as 8:00 a.m. before the 10:00 a.m. start -- but this year, there seemed to be even more than usual. These are views from the doorway.
And this is the Ken's Sporting Goods float. I wasn't able to get any great shots from the doorway, but it really was amazing. Missy's family -- mom Jean, dad Terry, aunt Joanne, uncle Mike, brother Chad, and cousins Amanda and Travis -- did hours and HOURS worth of work. I think Missy probably took some better pics, so I'll try to post some later to do it more justice.
After the parade, Jean brought Amanda and Lacey by in their little Army ambulance that followed the float -- how cute are they?! Alyssa rode in a little wagon-helicopter that followed, too.
Bill and Cathy headed back home on the 5th, and before they left, they came by the store so Grandma could buy each of the girls a toy of their choice. Alyssa is currently enthralled with pirates, so she picked some pirate paraphernalia.
Abbey, Alyssa, and Emma -- way too cute!
No pics from the rest of the weekend, but there were more adventures to be had. One of the best parts of the 4th, besides getting together with the whole family, is reconnecting with old friends who come back into town. We saw some old friends we hadn't seen since before high school ... I won't tell you how long ago THAT was. Suffice it to say that sometimes we didn't recognize each other ...

Can't wait until next 4th of July!