4th of July Fun

I love 4th of July.  Mainly because I love fireworks.  I have always had a thing for fireworks.  I am pretty certain I told Eric about my love and fascination with fireworks on our very 1st date when we saw fireworks for 24th of July in Provo at a baseball game.  I look forward to 4th of July every year for the opportunity to see fireworks.  I think I also love 4th of July because it is right in the middle of summer and it is a good excuse to have a BBQ and eat delicious food.  This year was no exception.

We drove down to Tucson to spend 4th of July weekend with my family.  Eric actually worked on the 4th so that we could have a long 3-day weekend just to play.  When we arrived in Tucson we wasted no time and started celebrating with my brothers and parents.  In all there was: my mom, my dad, my brother Tyler and his wife AmiCheri and their son Benson and my brother Ryan, his wife Angela and their kids: Jocelyn, Caleb, Ashley and Savannah.  Granted, Savannah and Benson were already down for the night, being babies and what not.  But all the rest of us had a blast outside play with poppers (also known as snappers), sparklers, and looking for fireworks.




Dancing with the sparklers and playing sword fighting was especially entertaining.

"En Garde!"

 I do think that my brothers Ryan and Tyler had the most fun with the poppers throwing them at one another leaving small tiny welts all over their bodies. . . . . Boys will be boys...Reminds me of when my other brother Nate was a junior in high school. He and his friend would play this game with a ping pong ball that whoever lost the match had to stand against a wall and the winner would get to hit a ping pong ball at the bare back of the loser with the paddle using all their might.  He came home with some pretty looking war wounds. Don't even ask me about when all my brothers used to play knuckles.   Like I said, boys will be boys hehehe.

Anywho, that night since it was a full house at my parents' place we stayed with Eric's aunt and uncle who also live in town.  Unfortunately their AC broke on the side of the house where we were staying.  I have to say that I have a newfound compassion for those who lived in the desert before there was AC, even electricity mind you.  Another reason why I was born in this day and age, I am a total wimp and love my modern conveniences.  Needless to say, we returned to my parents home rather early the next morning due to us being quite warm.

Eric spent the morning with my brothers and dad out in the desert shooting while I stayed home and played mom to Gabriel. 

Dad and Tyler getting the guns ready the night before

 Eventually my sisters-in-law and I went out shopping for supplies for our BBQ later that evening.  We had quite the feast that night and also had the chance to celebrate my dad's 62nd birthday.

I guess my dad needed a little help for all those 62 candles

 The next day we went to the YMCA to go swimming.  I spent almost every single day of my childhood summers at the Y swimming.  It brought back a lot of memories being there.  We had a lot of fun with Ryan and Angela's kids in the water.  They love to swim and loved having the waterproof camera taking pictures of them under the water.

Jocelyn

Caleb

Ryan

This was Gabriel's first time in a pool and we made certain to document the entire occasion.  Unfortunately the pool was a bit nippy for a 6 week old baby, so we only had him in the pool for about 15-20 minutes and only got him wet up to his diaper.  But I can officially claim that Gabriel has been swimming.  There is a swim school here in Mesa that does free swimming lessons for babies from 8 weeks to 5 months in an indoor heated pool so you can imagine that Gabriel is far from being down with his swimming experience.  Shoot, we are just getting started! Don't let my pale white pastey skin blind you in these next couple of photos.




 Later that afternoon/evening we celebrated Savannah's 1st birthday with a party.  I believe she had a blast, or at least really enjoyed getting all hyped up on sugar from her cake and getting a new baby doll all of her very own.  I think the best part was watching her take the pacifier from the doll and put it in her own mouth.  This girl is on top of it. 

After the party died down a bit Eric and I made a small escape to go out on a date.  It was the first time we had been out together since Gabriel's birth.  Having parents around to babysit sure does have its perks.  We didn't do too much, just went to a dessert lounge that I am obsessed with.  It is called "Something Sweet" and they serve over 40 different types of desserts.  Talk about heaven for a sweet tooth monster like me. 

All in all I would have to say that it was a very successful 4th of July weekend.  Gabriel was a champ the entire trip. He wasn't bothered by any of the loud noises of the poppers or fireworks on the evening of the 4th, got to go swimming and he took a lot of naps.  I can't wait till next year when he will actually be able to hold up his own head to look at the fireworks in the sky.