The 4th of July!

This year for the 4th of July I got to spend it with my side of the family.  Last year I was with Ammon's side of the family! Maybe next year I'll actually be able to spend it with Ammon! We'll see!

Anyway, Mommy Debbie, Daddy Carl, Uncle Derek and I packed up the cars and drove to San Mateo to visit Brandon, Maggie and Alyse! They are sub-letting a very nice apartment for the summer as well as a little car.  I'm so glad they were able to get all those loose ends worked out so they could be in Northern California!  We went to lunch at a yummy Mexican Place.  I had flautas. Yummy!  Then we went back to the apartment and Alyse went down for a nap!  The boys went out an played baseball while the girls sat in the nice apartment and talked.  Of course, the weather there is always nice! In fact, I could have handled it being a bit warmer! It was only in the low 70's yesterday in San Mateo!

Once Alyse got up from her nap we got ready to go to the pool.  Derek got a nice sunburn on his face while playing ball, so he stayed behind and got some shade (and nice nap).  The rest of us headed to the pool.  It was so fun to see  Alyse loving the water! She had a great time climbing the steps and jumping from them into someone's arms.  She knows how to blow bubbles in the water, which I think is a good skill, so hopefully if she gets under tha water, she will blow bubbles instead of take in water!

After the pool we went back to the apartment and grilled Costco hot dogs (yummy!!) and had orzo pasta salad, fruit salad, chips and salsa and then later dessert of ice cream with your choice of Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread, or Chocolate Chip Cookies! Whew!  It was a great visit!

Here are some pictures and video from the visit!

 The above picture is Alyse getting ready to go down to the pool.  She takes Baby Mimi everywhere! She pushes her in the stroller and is so cute in all her pink!

I think Daddy Brandon was havning just as much (if not more) fun playing with the toys Grandma Debbie brought!
Here's the video to prove it:

Alyse also has this toy train that moves with a controller on a cord. Alyse has more fun connecting and disconnecting the cord than walking around with the moving train!  She does enjoy dancing to the music the train makes! Take a look:

Alyse also had fun learning new things. She learned to blow raspberries from Uncle Derek!

After dessert we packed up the Morgan Hill Woodland's and headed back, letting Alyse be put to bed without all the visitors around.  When we got back home I made some popcorn and we bundled up to go watch the fireworks! We had to bun dle up because it was already in the 50's with a strong wind blowing! Wow! Cold!  Thank goodness I brought my big  hoodie!!

A few nights ago we had scouted out a place to view the fireworks from afar.  I really didn't feel like dealing with all the crowds at Community Park, so drove around our side of town and found a few different look out spots to view the fireworks from.  We decided on the field at Jackson School (very close up the street).  So we drove the short distance up the street with our chairs and blankets and popcorn bags.  When we got there, a few other people were there, but it was very nice! After a little wait, we were able to see the tallest fireworks from across the valley but not the lowest ones, which was fine with me!  The wierdest thing about the experience was seeing the fireworks go off, burn out, then hearing them!!  The delay was quite long! It was so funny to hear the fire works after they were already gone!  But we had a great time, came home and went to bed!  Great 4th of July!