Happy Birthday, America!

I wish I could add some pictures from my day, but unfortunately, I didn't have my digital camera charged, so all pictures were taken on my film camera. In fact, most of my pictures I have taken lately are on the film camera, so I'm going to have to wait a while to share some, but we've been having a blast! Love living close to lakes and nice parks on the beach!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this blog post might be a bit wordy as I have no pictures. ;)

Jayden decided that he wanted to have an early start to the celebrations of the day, so he awoke at about 4:30 this morning. I brought him out in the living room, turned on the t.v. and gave him some dry Cheerios to munch on. He snuggled up next to me on the floor and fell back asleep for a very brief amount of time. He woke me up again at 6:30. Not a great start to the day.

Jayden started getting fussy again, so I put him down for a morning nap, and tried to get some more sleep in myself. I woke up around 10:00 to Mark and the kids playing around, so I thought I should take the opportunity to do some grocery shopping.

At 2:30, we walked down to the parade route and I hiked around with Jayden on my back while we waited for the parade to start. Jayden doesn't like being in one spot for very long. I guess that's good for me- an excuse to get some exercise. The kids enjoyed catching candy and seeing the different parade entries. Watching the parade made me miss our tradition of driving to the little town of Johnson where people from all over the Palouse come and cram into the teeny town in the Palouse where the Americana spirit shines through. Then everyone drives over to another neighboring town for another parade and a community luncheon/picnic. And then it's back to Pullman for the big fireworks display at Sunnyside Park.

We walked home after the parade and got dinner ready. I managed to get Jayden to sleep for about half an hour before we had to leave to a dessert party a little further down the lake from us. Mark and the kids got to go out on the little barge that they had, but Jayden didn't want to go out at first. He was having a rather rough time settling into the new surroundings, and I was worried that I might have to leave with him. Eventually, he started warming up a bit. Mark and I took him for a little ride on the paddle boat before they closed the lake up to other watercraft so they could get ready for the fireworks. At first, he seemed to have a good time, but he started losing it when we were going to go back, so I got off with him and the other kids got on with Mark, and Jayden really started wailing! He wanted to go back out! He was trying to get me to put his lifejacket back on, but it was almost time for the lake to close. Mark and the kids ended up getting stuck on the lake, so someone went to help them back. In the meantime, I was going to go take Jayden for a walk, and the hostess suggested I take him inside and see if he would do better without all the extra stimulation from the fireworks going off and many people. He DID do better for a while. Actually, he liked opening and closing the sliding glass door. This is his favorite game when we go to houses that have these doors.

Eventually, the fireworks show started from the barge on the lake. It was a really nice one! I would venture to say that it was better than the ones I've seen in Pullman. I like the ones that form into shapes like hearts and flowers the best. To my surprise, Jayden really liked the fireworks! He kept saying,"Ooooh!" in his cute little 2 year old voice.

When the show ended, we headed back home. One of the neighbors had their own little fireworks show, and we caught the tail end as we pulled into the driveway. Even as I type this at 12:30, I can still hear them going off. The 4th of July is always a hard night to go to sleep, but the kids didn't have too hard of a time. They had quite the eventful day!