4th of July Weekend

What a great weekend we had! Traditionally, we spend the 4th at my mom's for a cookout. My sister and I invited more people this year and it was so much fun! My mom always decorates so festively and my dad was great on the grill! As usual, I ate way too much. Brendan is taking after me in the eating department as well. I think he could eat all day. And now that I think about it, I probably could too!

If he can dip it, he will eat it! Brendan's enjoying Aunt Kelly's famous "Cowboy Caviar" salsa and chips.

My dad manning the grill, complete with his "In-n-Out Burger" hat he got while he was out to visit my brother in California.

Playing in the pool

I was really looking forward to taking Brendan to fireworks this year, because last 4th of July he slowly came down with croup all day and we ended up skipping fireworks, only to spend the next 4 days in and out of the hospital! Thank goodness we didn't have a repeat this year!

He doesn't really get too frightened by loud noises, so I didn't think he'd mind the loudness of the fireworks and I was right! He loved them. For the first 60 seconds. And then as a typical (I think!) two year old, he lost interest and began jumping on and over everyone on our blanket, trying to push and climb in and out of his stroller etc. -- all while the glorious fireworks were right above his head. It was as if they weren't even there! He was actually pretty tired and slaphappy, so I guess that's what contributed to his lack of attention...

"OOOOh, look at these beautiful fireworks, dad! This is so cool!!"

"Weeeee, this is fun too!"

"I can't watch the fireworks right now, Mom. I need to focus on removing the fruit snack that is stuck in my stroller from last week. A kid's work is never done..."

"Mommy, do you still love me even though I have NO attention span?!"

On Saturday we drove an hour and a half west of here and attended a 4th of July housewarming party for friends of ours that just built a new home. Many of Jeff's coworkers from Los Angeles flew in to come to the party too, and it was nice to see all of them. Brendan was a total trooper and we stayed until almost midnight! If he has food and new toys, he's good to go!

It's so funny, because everyone was commenting on how good and happy he was and how they couldn't believe he was still up and being so well behaved... I love when your kids make you look like you live the easiest, chilled-out life! I can't even imagine what his behavior would've been like if we were at our house and I was trying to keep him up until midnight! He would be a terror! What a house full of new toys will do to a child's temperament :-) It's unbelievably wonderful!

Jeff and his pyro friends had fun amusing themselves with some fireworks... I stood way back, praying we wouldn't make it on the 11 o'clock news for someone losing an eye.

This is the child who NEVER falls asleep in his carseat! Within 2 minutes, he was OUT! It must've had something to do with the fact that it was midnight?!