Fourth of July Celebration 2013...

...Aside from last year when I was on maternity leave, this is the first time in 8 years that I haven't had to work on the Fourth of July. Luckily, I had the July 3rd shift so my holiday was open all day long!

 

AR and I started the morning with breakfast with Jenni, Emma and her grandparents. Ugh...I totally blew my diet but it was so worth it! Waffles with peanut butter and chocolate chips-yummy! After breakfast, we all headed to St. Charles for their parade.

 

Backtrack a second...when AR and I got to Gingham's for breakfast, Jenni pointed out that AR only had on one shoe. I assumed the other one was in the car, put her in the high chair and didn't think much about it. When we parked for the parade, I went to the back of my car to get out the stroller and found her shoe sitting on my bumper!!! I guess it fell off before we left and Matt put it there. I drove on the interstate, people, and it stayed on! I was so shocked but excited because we just bought these shoes last weekend.

 

We staked our spots and set up camp. Here are the girls:

Emma was all ready for the parade...AR and me on the other hand, weren't so prepared-thanks Jenni for letting us use some sunscreen.

We got there early to get good seats so we had awhile to entertain the girls before the actually parade started. AR enjoyed walking up and down the street.

Jenni bought an Italian Ice that Emma and AR shared...it turned their tongues blue as you can see on AR's tongue. Here she is talking to her Daddy who met us there.

The G-Fam on Fourth of July!

The parade was right during nap time. AR was so tired, she tried to lay down on our blanket to nap.

Emma was a sweet girl who stayed in her Grandma's lap the whole time

AR loved all the animals (mainly horses and dogs). This is a reindeer horse.

Santa and Mrs. Claus

We put AR in her stroller and laid it back for her to nap if she wanted. She'd lay down but then a band would come by and she'd pop up.

She loved the band playing "God Bless America"

She even clapped along!

AR and Daddy sharing a kiss

The fair Matt volunteers for had a float and we knew them so the stopped to say hi to AR

And then the parade was over and AR passed out before I even pulled out of parking place.

After the parade, we sat in the parking lot at the pool for an hour for her to nap. Oh the things we do for our babies! Then Matt, AR and I went swimming. It was a great place...3 seperate pools, a "waterslide" Matt could take AR down, 2 zero-entry pools-she loved it! Except that the water temperature was artic. We only stayed about 1.5 hours and about 30 of it, we were sitting on our chairs because the sun went behind the clouds and we were FREEZING!!! Normally, you warm up and get used to it but not today, I was chattering the whole time. Aside from the goose bumps, AR didn't seem to mind at all. Even Matt thought it was cold so we decided to leave.

 

We spent the rest of the day at home...us girls playing inside and napping while Daddy mowed. I made pulled pork in the crockpot for dinner and then we all went out for snocones after dinner. It was a great family day and a perfect way to celebrate Independence Day!