4th of July

4th of July weekend was really nice. The weather was wonderful, not too hot during the day and just cool enough for jackets & long pants in the evening. It was also Sophie's first viewing of fireworks and Ethan's 3rd.

Tim had the day off work and we enjoyed his day off. I took the kids (all dressed up in their 4th of July best) and mom & went to the fruit market and the store hitting some garage sales on the way. Boy did I find some great clothes for the kids. We then swung by our house to tell Tim we were grilling steaks at mom & dad's. We had a wonderful meal that ended with strawberry shortcake.

Ethan spilt juice all over his 4th of July best so we had to change his clothes (we waited 'till after dinner)




Sophie in her "I'm a little Firecracker" bib that her Papa got her and USA dress that her Aunt Laurelle got her

After dinner we loaded up the kids and headed to the park for the free family activities. We parked at the Green's and walked back up to the park. This is Ethan's favorite part of the evening.

Riding the Thomas train (he loves trains!)

Sliding down a giant blow-up train play house




Riding in another train

Just hanging out waiting for brother to go tru the giant train thing again....

Every year (must be close to 20 years) we have watched fireworks at Grandpa & Grandma Green's. They live on a lake with an island in the middle. They used to shoot the fireworks from that island, but haven't in years. You could always see the fireworks from the Green's even when they moved them. This year, they shot them from the island. They were right over our heads and very cool.

Sophie fell asleep just before the big ones started. There were other houses around the lake that were setting off their own fireworks and that's like a pre-show to the big display. We enjoy those too. When the fireworks started Sophie was snuggled sleeping in grandma's arms and Ethan and daddy were laying on a blanket.

It didn't take long for Ethan to burrow into Tim and want to leave, so Tim missed most all the fireworks. Sophie slept for the first 5 or so min. before she woke up to enjoy her first 4th of July. She sat up and wanted to sit with me, but she watched the fireworks and didn't get fussy 'till the very end (it was well past dinner time). Dad & I also got to try out the firework setting's on our camara's. He had a tripod, I had a baby in my lap. We both did rather well.

Here are a few of the shot's I got:

Early in the show, you can see the tree's on the island outlined by the sunset.

I believe this was during the grand finally. You can see the smoke at the bottom where they were lit.

Here you can see some of the fireworks reflected in the water. We had a wonderful time and hope you did too!