After the balloons, Greg left for work and I took the kids to Scera Park for Ellis Island in the Park. While waiting for Grandpa and Grandma, the boys played at the park and I fed Kate. Then we headed over to the presentation. It was interesting to learn a bit more about Ellis Island (although the speaker went on way too long for the boys; I think I lost them before we even started the walk). After the presentation, we walked around a large star of flags, stopping at each point to discuss a different way of being a good citizen. Gavin and Enoch were both tired and bored so it wasn't the great patriotic experience I had hoped for, but we tried. We also listened to a short musical about historical events that lead to the founding of our nation. Jarom and I did pretty well until they started singing Neil Diamond's We're Coming to America while talking about the pilgrams. That was a deal breaker for us; we left after that.
We headed home (I was hoping to take naps; didn't happen). Later that afternoon we drove to the splash pad park in Herrimann and had a great time. Enoch loved getting sprayed and playing with Carson. The little girls liked to sit on the blanket in the shade and just talk to each other. Gavin was highly disappointed in the splash pad ("It's for little kids. Whhhhhyyyyy did IIIIIIIII have to come?" Think whining.) However, he had fun reading his book. That night we did get to bed early, thank goodness.
Friday morning started with a Dutch-oven breakfast at our house. The entire Randall crew came over about 10am and we ate around 11:30am. The kids played games on the trampoline, the girls enjoyed being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa, and Dave and Greg had fun playing with their dutch ovens. Greg fixed his famous Mountain Man Breakfast and Dave and Michelle made orange rolls in their dutch-oven. It was all so yummy!
After breakfast we cleaned up, chatted and headed off to the movies. We saw WALL-E; have to say, not my favorite Pixar movie. Everyone else seemed to like it and Kate sat through the entire movie with hardly a peep. I think she was completely overstimulated after that. We went back to our house for awhile before leaving for Ford's for a BBQ (we hadn't eaten together enough this weekend!). Dinner was great and the kids had fun jumping and playing in the small pool. We lit off some Costco fireworks, packed up and headed over to Thanksgiving Point.
Yes, by this time my head was pounding. But it's only the Fourth once a year, you gotta enjoy it! We played a few games while waiting for it to get dark. The games were fun, but the kids loved the glow-in-the-dark bracelets. Fireworks were a bit of a disappointment because we sat so far away (we wanted to get out fast and avoid some of the noise for Kate; she slept through all of it).
By the time we got home, Enoch was screaming from exhaustion, Gavin was sleeping and we couldn't have woken up Kate if we wanted to (we didn't want to). It was a great time, but maybe we overdid it with the kids. We are still recovering and by next year we'll be ready to go again!
4 comments:
What a fun day! No wonder you said you were so tired at church. I'm kind of tired just readeing about it.
I agree, Dave and I were exhausted yesterday. But I loved all of the family time!! And the mountain man hash was amazing.
It was a fun day, definelty long. I was dissapointed with the fireworks too. Some one said they moved them over so they were not in the same spot. I think that was part of the problem. Usually we can see them much better from where we were. Oh well!
Wow - what a weekend. I love the Fourth! Glad you had so much fun and hope your family (and mine) recovers quickly from all the holiday partying!
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