Sunday, July 5, 2009

An All American Kind Of Day

We started off our 4th of July celebration by checking out the parade in a neighboring town!
Christian loves parades, especially when they throw candy. He got lots and lots of candy.

This was McKenna's first fourth of July experience. I didn't think she'd pay that much attention to the parade so I brought lots of snacks with us. But she could have cared less about the snacks. She loved it that everyone was waving at her. She waved and squealed the entire time!

Ahh...yes! You've gotta love America!
Guess what Christian says he wants for Christmas next year?
You got it...a unicycle! Heaven help us!!! He won't be getting one!
And pretty soon Christian was jumping up and down with sheer excitement!


He had spotted his "train tractor." This is the main thing he remembered from last year. It's actually a steam powered tractor with a whistle that sounds like a steam engine! He LOVED it!


There were two of them and they blew out a very thick, stinky smoke. Christian said it reminded him of Daddy's grill.

And then we headed over to the Jubillee!
McKenna had to hang out in her stroller for the next couple of hours (that's when the snacks came in handy).

While Christian bounced around in a bunch of inflatables.

The lines were ridiculous, but he had a grand time!

The petting zoo was also one of his favorite activities.


McKenna loved it too!
Cute calf and a cute boy!


One more inflatable and then it was time to head home!

Right after nap time we had some special friends come to visit. My friend Alisha and her husband were in town so they stopped by with Sophie!

Sophie is going to turn one in just a few days and McKenna loved having another "baby friend" to play with.
After dinner it was time for a little photo shoot! This was one of the better ones!
Christian gave me quite a few pictures with his fake smile.
McKenna was very excited about her flag.

Love the hair! Love the smile!

We have some friends who are running a TNT Fireworks tent to raise money for our church youth choir. So we stopped by to visit them.

What's the only thing Christian knows how to read?? Why "TNT Fireworks" of course.

He loved this Uncle Sam hat that lights up and kept it on for the entire night!

Then we headed to watch the fireworks. We found the perfect spot and basically had an entire field to ourselves with an absolutely perfect view of the fireworks. They were gorgeous! This was McKenna's first fireworks experience and I think this is the first one that Christian will remember. He didn't remember going to see them last year.
He really did sit like that for the entire fireworks display.

The kids fell asleep on the drive home from the fireworks, so when we pulled in the driveway I wanted to take a picture of them sleeping so cute in the car. BUT I couldn't find my camera. I tore the car apart and my purse, diaper bad, etc. and my camera was no where to be found. So I began to hyperventilate and started to feel sick to my stomach. This was my good camera that Ryan had just given me for Christmas. A pricey one that we would not be able to replace anytime soon. So I drove 25 minutes back to the field where we watched the fireworks, hoping and praying the entire time that I would be able to find my camera and that no one took it. In my nervous haste to go look for my camera, it didn't occur to me to grab a flashlight or go to the bathroom (since I had been needing to go for like an hour already). When I got back to the field I wandered around in the dark looking and looking and on the verge of tears. Then I got the stellar idea to turn the car so it faced the field with the high beams on. Five minutes later I found it! Yippee! So I didn't have a nervous break down after all and I am now aware of just how attached I am to my camera (probably a little too much). So it was a happy ending to a great day!
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But just so you know...fireworks season doesn't really end for us quite yet. It's sort of like being pregnant and getting so excited about your due date and then not having the baby for another week. I remember being pregnant with Christian and being so excited when I bought milk and it was dated after my due date. I anticipated June 8th for months and months and then June 8th arrived and nothing changed. The boy didn't arrive until June 14th! The fourth of July is a bit like that in the sense that things won't really calm down for Ryan until July 10th and then he'll need some time to recover. So I'm not expecting us to have Daddy back 100% with us until the middle of July.
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I hope you had a good fourth of July! We made lots of great memories and already are looking forward to next year!


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love McKenna's hair and the outfit! Christian looks like he had a great time. Maybe next year we can celebrate together.
Grandmom

the mccollums... said...

What cute pictures! WOW, McKenna has really grown up lately...she is a little girl now! What a great day you guys had...I'm so HAPPY that you found your camera...that is amazing!! I can just picture you running around trying to find it...aw. I guess the kids were asleep when you were searching...so thankful that you did!

The Marklund's said...

love all the pictures! we had a great time! thanks for letting us swing by, and thanks for the fireworks! :) sophie loved the fireworks, but fell asleep half way through. we ended up watching them at my brother inlaw's pastor's house on a hill... so we were just far enough away to get away from the crowds, but close enough to hear and experience the whole thing like we were there. :)

Katy said...

so so so glad that you found your camera!!! mckenna looks totally adorable in her 4th of july clothes -too cute!!! hoping the next few days go by quickly and you can have some much needed family time soon!