Katie Raivala Photography: Happy Independence Day (Belated)

Independence Day is always filled with family and friends. We like to stay home for the 4th so that we can enjoy everyone around us. Jon has a tradition of spending the day with his friend Hollywood that goes back to before I even knew him. I, on the other hand, like to just go where ever the day may take me. Here are some images that I took.

We started our festivities on Thursday night by having a campfire in the backyard.

He stole all of the chocolate from us. It took a while for us to figure out where it went and when we did realize the fact that Ethan took it, he gobbled it all up.

On Friday we went to my sister's house in Zimmerman MN to watch their boat parade. We arrived to my sister's house about 30 seconds before the parade started to we threw on the kids life jackets and placed them into the boat. I didn't even have time to tell Gary (my brother-in-law) that Noah isn't a fan of motors. I guess that it didn't matter because Noah had a great time steering the boat and didn't even scared of the motor.

Once night fell, we heading over to Jon's brother's (Jimmy and his wife Erin) house to watch the fireworks that are launched over Lake Orono. I decided that it was time for me to get my camera and when I returned I found Noah holding a sparkler. Instantly the owner of the sparklers said that he didn't give it to him as he pointed to Jon. I wasn't about to take it away from him because I didn't want anyone to get hurt so instead, I took a photo. I was hand holding my camera (no tripod) so I was really happy to see that I got the shot. Here it is: