I love, LOVE, L-O-V-E the 4th of July. It’s a holiday that makes me happy because I love living in America. Having kids just ramped up my desire/helped to justify my celebrating. Last year we tried the city of Arlington 4th of July parade. It was great and we decided to go again this year and invited friends.
Cute girls all around!! So glad they family joined us.
Awesome fly-over this year.
After the parade we came home and made sugar cookies that were heavy on the sprinkles.
Nadia’s face here is hilarious!
Then the girls put on a parade for Mike and I. With each pass they would change instruments. These are priceless moments to remember.
Last year we went out to the Haltom City/North Richland Hills/Richland Hills joint fireworks display. It was great and didn’t have giant crowds to fight, so we planned to go again this year. Once again, it was a great show and Amelie was laughing hysterically for a quite a while when the fireworks began. It was a long day filled with fun and I look forward to next year.
Once we had the car packed up we headed over to the Dosie Dough for breakfast. It was just as good the second time and we got more doughnut holes for the road. After breakfast we wanted to check out the town park.
We loved visiting this area of the country and staying in the cute town of Lititz. All too soon it was time to start our two day drive home. It was a wonderful trip and I am so glad we were able to visit so many family and friends.
On Thursday of our road trip we planned to spend the day with the Hameloth’s. We had breakfast at Dosie Dough which was this cute little coffee shop on the main street of Lititz. It was delicious food for a great price and they had the BEST doughnut holes which complimented our bagel breakfast sandwiches. After that we met the gang at the Julius Sturgis Pretzel factory for a tour. It was really cool to see how the pretzel got it’s shape and on the tour you get to make a pretzel with dough yourself.
We had some time before our tour started so we walked across the street and the kids just started running. I don’t know at what age you cross over, but you never see any adults who see a field and just start running around in circles just for the fun of it 😉
Amelie and Jared showing off their finished creations.
After the pretzel tour we headed over to the Wilbur Chocolate store so we could give the Wilbur Buds a try. On this trip I learned about the long standing competition between Hershey and Wilbur and what came first, the Bud or the Kiss. We bought some treats and candy molds and we were off!
Lynnea suggested we try this place Isaac’s for lunch. All the sandwiches are named after birds which I got a kick out of because I love goofy stuff like that. The food was delicious and it gave us much needed fuel for our big day. We also stopped at Achenbach’s Pastry shop to get Long Johns for after dinner. The Long John is like a long skinny doughnut topped with different flavors of icing. YUM!!! I am know going to figure out what the Texas equivalent is and see if they are as good. The peanut butter topped one was my favorite.
Next up was the Lapp Vally Farm. We got to walk all around looking at the jersey cows, where they were milked and the fields. After wandering all around and the kids chasing the peacocks… we had ice cream in waffle cones (all made fresh on site). It was some seriously good ice cream.
Little cow having a taste of Nadia’s shirt. HA!
This guy was squawking while the kids were trying to sneak up on his mate.
I have no idea what they would have done if they were able to get close, but it was silly to watch.
After leaving the farm I saw this sign while driving down the road and asked Mike to stop. I bought a bottle of root beer and some strawberry preserves. I didn’t have the root beer until the next day, but it was really good. Very stout and flavorful – nothing like the grocery store stuff.
We headed back to the Hameloth’s for playtime, dinner and smores. Nadia enjoyed watching them being made, but not eating them.
Lynnea and I. And all too soon it was time for us to head back to Lititz and get ready to hit the road in the morning. My one HUGE, GIANT regret of the trip was that we forgot to get a photo of all 8 kids together that night. Here I am a month later still kicking myself over it 🙂
And the saddest thing about leaving was all the tears shed by these two girls who are such good buddies. I managed to keep my sadness inside until we were about half a mile down the road and Nadia just started crying her eyes out. Then Mommy had to cry too.
We had so much fun with the Hameloth family. Thanks to all of you for showing us your beautiful part of America (and delicious food) and we hope to see you soon!
