Fourth Festivities

We had a pretty full weekend. We celebrated the 4th a bit early and enjoyed a very full day of excitement on Sunday. I realize I'm writing this as we approach another weekend, but I'm just finding the time and energy to do it. 

The day started off with this little boy practicing his mad skills.

We left our house at 10:30 a.m. and decided to park at one of Ray's office buildings and walk to a festival in our town. Because we're residents, we were granted free admittance until 3:00 p.m. We walked in the insane heat (it's been nearing 100 for nearly 2 weeks in the Midwest and miserable) about 1.5 miles to the festival, just to have them tell us a thunderstorm was coming and they shut the festival down. Here we are, stranded about 1.5 miles from the car, hungry, and frustrated that we couldn't get into the festival free. We insisted they stamp our hands (okay, they didn't mind at all) so we could come back later and walked about 1/4 mile down a street with restaurants. Our first choice was a bakery... closed. Second choice was a Mexican restaurant... closed. Finally, the clouds were rolling in and we had no choice but to find some place to wheel our kiddo to so we wouldn't be found unsafe in the middle of a lightning storm.

Enter, diner on the corner. It's just one of those places I don't dare visit. Vegetarians not only don't fare well in joints like this, but the food is just not that good. It's a last resort type of place, or the kind of place you'd only enjoy eating at if you were in high school or college late at night, preferably with a few beers in you.

The waitress came over and every time she did, B would cry.

Currently working on a sweet blowout. Diners make me wanna poo.

In places like this, I'm always stuck ordering the ever-so-exciting, grilled cheese. And I always know I'll be even more lucky if it comes with peelie cheese. I try to compensate by adding a tomato, but that never does much good to mask the questionable texture of the rubbery cheese. And lucky me! My meal also came with a huge bowl of chicken and rice soup that was larger than the sandwich. Because vegetarians like chicken.

Passed this delicious number off to my husband who will eat anything.

Speaking of husband. He was quite excited to tell me (always the optimist) that {lucky me!} since the diner was a new joint we'd never been to, I had one more place to add to my Yelp reviews. And he also added that I had to give them at least 3 stars. Out of five. I think it was the frosted glass and puke pink decor.

After the storm transitioned into a mere drizzle, we scooted out because B had just about enough of that waitress who wanted to consult me about breastfeeding since her daughter just had a baby. Glad to know I'm considered an expert. We headed 1.5 miles back to our car and toured Ray's work. This is his second office and I'd never been inside, as it's just a temporary facility for their overflow. We decided it would be fun to weigh B again since I'd been feeding him on both sides now. There's obviously a margin of error on scales in general and using two different scales adds another margin of error... but it had to be relatively close to accurate because it was a postal scale (also en route from Amazon to the Wilson casa) after all. We stripped the kid down and used a box as a buffer for the baby in the buff. Hah.

Box was .4 lbs making B 12 1/2 lbs (up over 1/2 lb  in 5 days. Booyah)

Then he promptly peed all over Ray. Subtract an ounce. Hah. We then headed to Michael's for some crafty items for our latest project involving a paper mache moose. Stay tuned for that post.

One the way to Michael's. He wouldn't let go of that ball. I recommend it., btw. It was a gift and they're about $4 at Target. While he's becoming excellent at grabbing things lately (on purpose), this is one of those items you can introduce early as a toy because they have so many areas to grasp that it offers a sense of satisfaction. He was getting frustrated with Sophie for awhile. Now she's a friend.

After Michael's, we headed to a birthday party for a couple hours and then headed back to park at Ray's work and walk another 1.5 hours back to the festival. We were determined! If you're keeping track, that's about 7.5 miles in one day of walking in 90+ degree weather. We didn't say we weren't crazy. We met up with some friends at the festival, ate some surprisingly delicious food (my veggie burrito had asparagus in it! amazing!), listened to a few cover bands, and walked around to see the hot air balloons light up before the fireworks started after dark. It was definitely a long night, but B had plenty of naps at {surprisingly} the times he normally takes them at home. I find that he takes even longer naps when we're out and about.

See the name on the balloon? Yeah, me too. <3 <3

What a concept. Not iPhone photos = considerably better quality.

B was SO excited at the fireworks. Every one he would chuckle or make an ohh, ahh sound. Precious. So thankful we have him to share the fun things in life with. So thankful, I don't even have words to express.

We walked back to our car at this point and headed home. It may have been an insanely late night, but for the very first time in his life, B slept 8 hours and 5 minutes straight. He must have been exhausted from all the new excitement. Ray and I both agree that it was probably our favorite family day we've had yet-- aside from his birthday, of course. He was just so excited about life.