Fourth of July... Chapman Style

Every year Red White and Blue Fire Protection District plays an integral part in the Breckenridge Fourth of July Parade. It gives the fire fighters a chance to dress up and march down Main Street. Brent loves this part of his job.

Breck is about an hour from where we live and we made the drive first thing in the morning. As soon as we pulled up to the firestation we could already hear the bag pipes playing...

Before the parade everything was pure chaos. Kids and dogs were running every where while every one tried to figure out where they were supposed to go.

Finally, when all of the kids were thrown into fire trucks and all of the fire fighters were lined up the parade began.

I ran up and down the street so that I could get pictures of Brent and Bridget as they made their way down the street. Both of them were so proud. Brent is one of the guys in the middle of this photo holding a flag. I'm pretty sure he was the third one from the left.

I looked like a maniac while I ran into the street to take my pictures.

Bridget was even laughing at me as I took this picture.

After the parade she told Brent that she was famous because people were clapping for her.

She has her mouth full of candy in almost every shot I took. I think she ate more candy than she threw. (Click on this picture to make it bigger and you'll see the funny face she's making.)

Some of the kids decided not to be in the parade so that they could get the candy that was thrown in the street. Little did they know the trucks were first in the parade and Bridget was soon able to come back and watch the rest of it. Here's another photo of her and her friend Riley. Riley's dad works on the same shift as Brent.

After the parade we all met up at an Irish Pub called Burke and Riley's for lunch. The police and fire fighters bag pipe band played there as well. Bridget and Riley couldn't help but dance to the music.

Brent's batalion chief "Rosie" plays the drums in the band and he let Bridget give it a shot.

Here is a picture of Rosie doing his thing. After we ate at Burke and Riley's we went to Fairplay to hang out at the Goossen's house. The kids popped some fire crackers, we ate some more hamburgers and finally went home. Bridget passed out as soon as we got into the car. It was such a fun day.