The (weekend of the) Fourth

We started the party Thursday night, with some of our favorite friends and pizza on the grill.  This weekend was filled with family, friends, and lots and lots of activity.  My introverted side is ready for a cocoon, but the memories, and my sweet girls' smiles and flushed cheeks are so worth the weariness at the end of it all.

I love to have the girls all in matching jammies, sweetly cleaned up for bed.  Matching doesn't mean as much to my darling, and yet, they are still just as, if not more, adorable in his choices.

The fourth dawned, and my sweet girls got all stars-and-striped up, thanks to their Nonna's gifts of very American getups.  

Of course, getting dressed was quickly followed by playing with the hose and getting hilariously soaked.

Then came the: sit around half-naked until your clothes dry part of the day.  Anni's clothes had an extended wash and dry cycle after Colette spilled some water on her tray, and proceeded to grab the closest item (Anni's nearly dry dress) to mop it up.  Never boring around here, my friends!

Once everyone was washed, dried, and put back together, we trekked out to the park with my in-laws.  Anni rode her bike the whole way there... how in the world could she be so big?!

We headed back home just as the rain drops began to fall, and the men set the grill up in the entrance of the garage and proceeded to cook us a fantastic meal. 

 

That night, we went to see fireworks.  Anni has been talking about them since we went to the 3rd of July show in Denver last year (she loved it, it was fantastic).  This year, we went to a smaller show near us, and Anni, as she put it, "really didn't like it."  We weren't as close (some trees hid them from view), they were loud (not as loud as last year, but apparently it got to her more this year... at which point I kicked myself for not getting something to protect their little ears... don't worry, already ordered so we have them next time), and near the end, she desperately had to go potty, at which point she started shouting to everyone as we ran to the porta-potties "Help me!  Anyone, help me! I don't like it, I don't like it!"  Ah, well.  She has already admitted she wants to try again next year, and, while she didn't love it, Colette was absolutely enthralled.  All I have is the terrible photo below (we weren't close enough to get light from the show like last year), but oh, goodness.  She ooh'ed and ah'ed along with everyone else, and pointed, and giggled, and just generally had a blast.
  

The next day, we all headed to a Rockies game.  Here, Anni was as cute as possible as she cheered for our team, "GO Charlie!  You can do it!  Trust me!" and talked smack to the Dodgers, "Get out!  Go home and sit in your own seats!"  Ah, my baseball loving in-laws were so proud!  Colette mostly was passed from lap to lap and seat to seat and ran around with me in the air-conditioned food area. It was a bit long for this non-sports-lover, but I'm really glad we went.

Then, to round out our weekend, we went to bid adieu to one of the awesome digital campus missionaries that Daniel has worked with for the next two years.  He is headed off to join the Dominican order (you can find his bio here, he is "Jeff"), and while Daniel is really going to miss the joy he's brought to the office, we're so excited for his future!

Happy "the Fourth"

We spent our fourth digging into some family time.  I am a homebody, I completely admit it.  I have a great time when we get out (usually), but it takes a whole lot of convincing to get me out in the first place.  The biggest convincer for me has been my sweet family.  In 5, 10, 20 years, I want our family to look back and have a flood of memories meet them at the door of our past.  Sure, many of those will be snuggled in our own home, but I also want to show our babies all of the wonderfully sweet things in which we can find delight. 

We took both girls to see their first fireworks show the evening of the third.  We brought a picnic early so we could grab a spot before they were all gone and watched as the people poured in (it's free, earlier than any other fireworks show around which is way awesome for the babies and accompanied by the symphony, check, check and ch-eck!)

Lettie hung out on our comfy blankets, just taking in the people and sky while we waited for the festivities to begin.  Once the music started, I tucked her into the sling so I could help block out the noise a bit (we didn't make the decision to go early enough... so, despite checking several stores, couldn't find noise cancelling headphones... luckily, I was able to keep things muffled enough for her to get comfy and fall asleep right as the fireworks started to go off).

The show started off with the symphony, and oh, my... the girls loved it (here meaning Anni and one of her sweet friends, Lettie was freaked out if I forgot to keep her little ears covered)!  They danced, Anni proclaimed every song to be her favorite and echoed, "Today!" for several minutes after they performed Neil Diamond's "America".  There was a light show during, but it was much more fun to watch Anni's expression and dancing. 

When it came time for fireworks, Anni's sweet little friend crawled under a blanket on her mommy's lap and stayed firmly put except to once respond to her mama telling her that Anni was watching the fireworks by saying, "Noooo, Anni, noooo!" with great concern.  

Anni loved the fireworks (though requested that Daddy keep his hands firmly over her ears... noise-muffling headphones next year, mama!)  She used the words "pretty" and "popping" quite a bit, but mostly just stared.  This, my friends, was so worth leaving my little home.    

 
We didn't roll out of bed until well after 10:30, with Lettie snuggled in and eating most of the morning as I watched her sweet face and dozed off, enjoying the laziness. 

Daniel's parents came down to celebrate, though we spent most of the day lazily recovering (it takes this homebody a lot of recovering time after going out, even if she did have a blast).  We did manage to pack a few boxes and do some cleaning with the extra baby-holding hands and reading to toddler Nonna around. 

We picked up some barbeque (no grills allowed on our deck!) and finished off the night with some bubbles.  Miss Anni usually gets so frustrated when she struggles to blow bubbles, but the wind did it for her tonight!

My heart is full of the sweetness of our little family.  God bless America.

Happy Fourth of July!

We got back from our week-long adventure (ohdeargoodnessnebraskawassoshotandhumid!) on Saturday and are still in recovery mode.  However; today, well, today Daddy doesn't have to work... which is like the best mid-week gift ever.  We're celebrating with George Foreman burgers (we aren't allowed to have grills on our porch), park trips and maybe, just maybe, a little swimming if little Miss-recovering-from-a-nasty-cold is up for it.

The Fourth of July and the blogs that shall never be blogged

 Before the fourth of July came and went, was the Cedar Bluff vacation with my family.  Unfortunately, that came and went nearly a month ago... and I don't really see having the energy to put together a post about it.  So... I'm going to direct your attention to my lovely, darling sister's blog.  She did blog about it, and I supplied a good portion of the pictures :).  Here you can find day one, and here you can find days two and three.

Fourth of July weekend was busy, but we had a blast (until I got food poisoning, it was kind of downhill from there).

Miss Anni got her first haircut from the woman who not only gave Daniel his first haircut, but also the haircut he had for our wedding.  I haven't been able to dig out his haircut picture yet, but I will, oh, I will :).  It was a very little one, she had grown a very tangled little mullet in the back, so Paula just trimmed it up a teensy bit so it would grow in a little better with the top.

We don't have any stairs but outside stairs in our apartment, but our doctor wanted Anni to work on stair climbing.  She has mastered my in-law's stairs... which is both a tiny bit nerve-wracking and exciting!  She likes to stand at the top and cackle at everyone below... and then bump down the stairs with me :).

I made my first ever batch of homemade lemonade.  Anni helped.  Supposedly it was good... I got a text from a friend a few days later telling me he was thinking about my lemonade :).

... and we celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday.  Not only was it a blast to hang out with him again, but I got to request old stories of him and and my hubby when they were little :).  They were such adorable little blonde boys!

Then came the fourth.  It was brutally hot... which should have signaled us to avoid the fair we were headed to... but we got Miss Anni all dressed up (she went through three hats that day, each one cuter than the last).

See those pink cheeks below?  This was only 10 minutes into getting out of our cars at the stampede.  It was so, so hot!

We soldiered on... patted animals big (really, really big) and small.  Anni's favorite was the Alpaca, although this was the one animal in the petting zoo that went out of its way to avoid her.

And then, after spending a good half an hour in the art museum to cool off, we headed back out  to watch the lumberjack show.  If possible, it felt hotter.  We sat in the shade of the bleachers, occasionally straining to catch a glimpse of the action.  And, this may be one of the few times I ever say this, but thank goodness for McDonald's.  They came around with free mini fruit smoothies and gave each of us two since they were melting.  They were tasty and Anni loved them.  Plus, they cooled us down just long enough to decide to stay for five more minutes before we left. 

In those last few minutes, we bought Anni a cowboy hat and took her on the carousel... which was seriously the fastest carousel I have ever been on.  I spent the entire time trying to keep her from sliding off the horse and the hat from sliding off her head.  I should have spent the extra money to get myself a ticket so we could sit on the bench seat.  Next time... except probably not another next time there...
 

Oh!  And I didn't mention it, but we were there with the most lovely couple!  Mark is a long-time friend of Daniel's and was a groomsman in our wedding (and taught me how to properly make pie crust) and Erika is his beautiful, charming girlfriend!

The End.