4th of July Weekend

What a beautiful long weekend to celebrate our country's independence. Here is what we did.

Saturday:
We took the kids to the zoo. It was about 95 degrees and soooo humid. We got through in about an hour and everyone napped well (well the girls did!). We then went to the Pauli Pool and grilled out. Half way through dinner my mother-in-law wished my father-in-law a happy anniversary (oopps!) I thought their anniversary was in April! OK, well Happy 34th Anniversary to Kenny & Robin! Thanks for spending your evening with us!

We ended the evening with a family movie (Princess Diaries 2 - thanks to a garage sale swap!). We try to do this once a month. We all pile into our bed and watch a family friendly movie. After the kids were asleep Brandon tried to get me to watch Full Metal Jacket (claiming he hadn't seen it before)...um I think I lasted five minutes and demanded that it be turned off.

Sunday:
We woke up around seven with all of the kids joining us in bed for an episode of Mickey Mouse. We had a lazy morning and then packed up for the river. We joined my parent's on their boat for the afternoon. We grilled out, caught some rays (some more than others!) and maybe a little nap!

Brandon and I rented The Company Men. Not an uplifting movie, but I suppose it was a pretty realistic story of people losing their jobs during the recession. We both went to sleep feeling very lucky for all that we have. And were reminded that it wasn't that long ago that when people would complain about their jobs the common response was "yeah, but at least we/you have a job". All in all, an OK movie. We watched a lot of movies this weekend!

Monday:
We decided to treat Elizabeth to a special "date" just for her. Grant hung out with my mom and we took EB to Pizza Hut for lunch. When asking her where she would like to go for her special lunch that is what she choose. We were fairly confident we would be heading to the Arches, but pizza it was. After lunch we took her to her first movie. We showed her the trailers of Mr.Popper's Penguins and Cars2. She choose Cars. I thought this was odd for her, considering she has only seen bits and pieces of Cars1, but it was her choice. As we walked into the theater we walked by the "penguin" movie and she started the "I want to see the penguins." I told her if the Cars movie went well then I would take her back to see the penguins. Well, I don't think we will be seeing Mr.Popper's Penguins. After 30 minutes (geessh!) of previews she ran out of patience quickly. The movie just didn't really hold her attention. We made it through the whole thing with only two potty breaks, but it was a lot of seat/lap repositioning! For a two and half year old she hung in there. I think we will wait until fall until we attempt this again! Surprisingly, we didn't have to buy her a ticket. Actually on the way home she said, "Next time I stay with Ima (what she calls my Mom) and you and Daddy can go to the movie!" Sounds like a plan to us!

We finished the evening with a good old American meal of ribs and corn on the cob and of course fireworks! It took about 40 minutes to get out of downtown traffic. Brandon is fairly confident that the police directing traffic had no idea what they were doing and were much more of a hindrance than help.


It was a great long weekend and Elizabeth went to bed asking "Daddy, will you be home when I wake up or do you have to go to work?" We were sad to say that he has to go to work. "But oh no Daddy how will I give you a kiss?!" (followed by some very sad boo-hooing).