4th of July!

With Garrett working so many weekends recently we planned a "family day out" for the 4th of July and we had been looking forward to it for weeks!

To start our day we headed out to the mall early along with the mall walkers so that we could get our morning walk in air-conditioning and let Ethan play on a deserted play-place. We had so much fun at the play-place that we decided to forgo our next planned stop (the local splash pad) and take Ethan home for an early nap instead.

In the afternoon we decided to go and ride the free trolley. Ethan and I had gone and ridden it for fun once before and he loved it. He kept calling it a choo choo and every time the driver honked the horn he would yell out "CHOO-CHOO!" at the top of his lungs. He also happily waved at everyone who came aboard. Since it was such a success last time we decided it was time we went again and brought Daddy along.

He was a little subdued at first since he has been upset on the ride over but he quickly got over it and had fun.

Talking with Daddy about his monkey.

Taking in all the sights.

It's DaDEE! (Garrett was behind the camera for a bit)

And no longer subdued. He was talking up a storm about everything he saw.

Getting ready to get off. He asked to wear his monkey leash backpack. He wanted to wear it all of about a minute before the novelty wore off.

After the trolley ride we realized how hungry we were so we decided to try out a pizza place near the trolley station.



The pizza was so good! Even Ethan loved it and asked for more (and he can be picky!) I was able to eat one slice of their delicious thin crust pepperoni pizza along with a salad and still stay within my blood sugar parameters too. It was such a treat!

Once we got home we didn't even make it in the door before Ethan was asking to play in the backyard. We recently bought a second hand, second hand play-structure off of a friend and he has loved it.

Monkey see, monkey do!

We had talked about setting up his baby pool so he could swim but he was just as happy playing with a bucket of water!

We were pretty tired at the end of our day. We were glad that we went and saw fireworks a few days prior because we were all tired and ready to call it a night.

At the end of our long, fun, tiring family day I am so grateful to have the opportunity to sit on my own back porch and enjoy the peace and quiet of our suburban neighborhood with my little family while my son got one last bit of play time in before bed. I want to shout out a thank you to our troops for protecting and serving our country. Freedom isn't free and I appreciate the sacrifices they have made so that my family and I can enjoy our freedom. Freedom that allows us to spend a perfect day together like the day we've had today. How grateful I am for our blessings!