Happy Fourth of July

We had a very busy, yet very nice 4th of July holiday. I was fortunate that our office closed both Friday and Monday for the holiday. Eric had to work on Friday, so I sent Grace to day-care and got some extra sleep for me. I also did a few chores around the house and then picked Grace up after lunch. I let her take a quick nap at home and then we went to JC Penney to have her 6 month pictures done. She was so funny and of course wouldn’t smile at the right times, but we did get a couple of good shots and overall it went well. Samara and Ava came out to the mall too and we did a little shopping. Towards the end of shopping we decided to see if the Dad’s wanted to come meet us for dinner. We went to Champps. Both the girls were ready for their dinners. I went inside with the guys and fed Grace at the table, but Samara stayed in the car to feed Ava. About the time our food arrived (Will had ordered for Samara) we realized her car was gone and both Will and I checked our phones and saw that she had tried to call us. It must have been too loud to hear them ring. Ava decided she wasn’t ready for her first dinner in public, so the only option Samara could think of was to take her home. We felt bad that we missed her and couldn’t do anything to help. After dinner, Will went home, but Eric and I headed over to a friend’s son’s Little League game. After the game we stayed and watched the downtown fireworks from afar. We weren’t really close enough for them to be loud, so Grace slept in her stroller through most of the evening.

Saturday we had a kind of lazy morning, but went to the airport to pick up my parents just after noon. We then stopped and got some lunch before heading home. We put Grace down for a nap and then Mom and I planned out our meals for the weekend and headed to the super Wal-Mart. The guys seemed to think we were gone too long, but we had fun shopping (without Grace!). We brought home some deli chicken and then just hung out at home.

Sunday was a really busy day. We got up and went to church. After church we came home and had some sandwiches and fed Grace. Then we spent the entire afternoon at the zoo! It was lots of fun and Grace was well-behaved, but it was HOT! By the time we finished we were all beat and ready to relax. We had dinner at Applebee’s and then headed home. Grace played for a while and has almost figured out how to crawl. She’s getting really frustrated because she wants to move, but just hasn’t figured out how yet. We put her to bed and then watched a movie.

Monday we got up and had a late breakfast at First Watch and then went to Best Buy. For once we didn’t do too bad. We bought some CD-R’s and a 3-pack of DVD’s for $20. After Best Buy we were a little tired and Grace was starting to fuss, so we went home and Grace and I took a nap. We just hung out in the afternoon and everyone else seemed to sneak a nap in too. We decided to grill steaks out for dinner and then around 7:30 p.m. headed over to some church friends house to hang out before walking over to a park for fireworks. The fireworks didn’t start until almost 10 p.m. and amazingly Grace was still awake. She cried a couple of times during the fireworks, but when she realized I was right beside her, she was fine. Watching the fireworks with her was so amazing. We were laying on a blanket on the ground looking up at the sky. She just stared and watched the whole thing, but her little hand was holding onto my finger the whole time. This time when I watched them I tried to see it from her point of view. Staring into the night sky watching these beautiful colors and shapes. No wonder she was amazed. It was so special to hold her and get to witness it through her eyes. She fell asleep during the walk back to the car and we put her straight to bed when we got home.

My parents left this morning and unfortunately we’re back to work. I’m looking forward to that vacation coming up. I’ll upload some pictures into Flicker tonight for your viewing pleasure. We have a lot of them!