4th of July

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love fireworks. The only time we really get to see them is Independence Day and New Year's Eve. There really should be more reasons to shoot beautifully sparkling explosives into the sky...

I worked for part of the day and unfortunately Dustin had to work the entire evening so Alivia and I were on our own. I planned on walking her down to the local recreation center where they put on a pretty good show. I had no intentions however of staying there until the fireworks started. It would have put her up way past her bedtime and that's not something we ever mess with. The plan was to go walk around, see all the people, play in the grass and have a few treats.

Before setting out I snapped a few photos in the same spot we did last year.

Look at my squishy baby! My goodness what a difference a year makes!!!

 

We had a lot of fun once we finally got to the park. There were so many people for Alivia to watch. Tons of babies and dogs which she loves so much. She wants them all to give her puppy kisses on her hand.

One of the best things about the 4th is the great food vendors. Luckily something sounded good to me because lately nothing does. Here we tried a Philly Cheese steak but made with turkey. She sure liked it! 

I also thought I'd throw in a few more photos from last year.

 

I may have also sprung for a funnel cake...since Alivia doesn't usually get treats like this, and I planned on eating some anyway, I knew there was no way getting around her trying some. :-) She mostly just wanted to pinch off the powdered sugar and eat it lol.

We had a good time together and it was so exciting to watch Alivia watch everyone else. There was a family right in front of us that had a big brother dancing around with his little sisters. It was so adorable and Alivia got up and tried dancing like they were. Then she wanted me to get up and dance with her too. When I figure out how to post a video I'll show you!

 As the night got further along she was actually doing really well and I felt bad leaving before the big finale. Since she was in such good spirits I thought she could make it through the evening. She did start to get a little upset right before the parachute jumpers came down but once they were out of the plane the look on her face was priceless. There were 4 or 5 of them and in the dark sky with their bright sparklers trailing behind them Alivia was in awe. I wish I could have captured that in a photo but I'm glad I got to see it.

 

The firework show was great as always. The music was incredibly loud but that didn't seem to bother Alivia. Actually she fell asleep half way through. But while she was awake she just stared up at the sky with the biggest eyes ever :-) 

Thinking about it now I'm really happy that we stayed and watched them together. Next year we certainly won't be staying up with her to watch them as we'll have another little one at only 6 months old and I don't think we'll be staying out all night.

I wish of course that Dustin could have been there. That would have made the night perfect!