4th of July

 The 4th turned out to be a really fun day with the fam. We had a red, white, and blue breakfast of crepes with pudding, strawberries and blueberries. Then whipped out our awesome pool that struggles to hold water and got our tan on. I love when he just wears the swim diaper. The speedo/European-esque look is endearing. :)

And this little dude put on his speedo for the first time this summer even though the water turned out too cold for him.

Then, for the first time we decided to go to the Cheektowaga Town Park Parade. And guess who forgot her camera?! Bug! And it was the boys' first parade! :( We weren't sure what to expect, so we took the back roads, parked, and ended up leaving the chairs so we could walk faster and not miss the beginning. Harlem Road was already packed, but we found a spot and parked it on the curb. Only then did we realize why this particular spot was left vacant... we were right on top of a sewer grate! Lovely smells wafting our way. Well that was just the beginning of our ghettotastic experience. To our left was a sunburned gentlemen... shirtless, scraggly hair, covered in tattoos and smoking away. Then we hear his raspy voice prepping his kids..."Ok, guys, now remember- be aggressive! When they start throwning the candy, you gotta be fast! Now any candy from the sewer over, is yours. That lady over there (referring to myself) will block the grate so none goes down the sewer. (I was glad to have received my instructions early on). Any from the sewer over, is that boys (referring to Collin... how nice)." And then, throughout the parade, whenever candy was being thrown, he'd hobble to his feet and started drunkenly waving his arms and shouting at the top of his hoarse lungs, "EW! EW! EW!" . I had no idea what sound was emanating from his mouth, but apparently it was meant to signal, "Throw the candy over here or I'll come smother you with my B.O." I'd say it was entertaining, but that might be pushing it. Then our left was poor, drug addict mom with her swarm of children. I'll just say it felt like Buffalo. :) But don't let me mislead you, we really did have a fun time. Collin loved the fire trucks (even though I was truly afraid our eardrums would burst from the noise) and had fun running to get the candy and watching the fancy "Fast and Furious" cars and marching band. Not a shabby parade, all things considered.

In the evening we went to our ward's BBQ in the stake center parking lot which is perfect since it's right next a school playground. You could definitely see the void that 15 families makes after all the moving though.

(Our patriotic family picture :)

 

 We came home to bathe Collin then went and watched the Cheektowaga Town Park fireworks from the cemetery. Yes, you read correctly.  Best place with wide open spaces. We weren't admist headstones though. I think it might be land that will be used for that eventually.

Don't be fooled by this picture. When we told Collin that the fireworks were starting, he plunked down contentedly for about point 2 seconds, then was back to the races.
Also, notice his shirt..... it's inside out. Cuz on the other side it says Espana in big, bold letters. I wasn't thinking when we threw it on him after his bath and rushed out the door! Then as he's running around before the fireworks it occurred to me how obnoxious it seemed to be flaunting an Espana shirt. Oops!

Here he is with a little friend he found to run around with. Only she didn't last nearly as long as he did and yet he acted surprised when he realized he was the only one running circles anymore. SO MUCH ENERGY.

 The show was pretty spectacular. Even worth the hour wait. We thought they would start at 9pm when the sun went down, but it was closer to 10pm. And we were Collin's jungle gym for every second. He finally conked out around 10:30pm on the drive home but was up bright and early at 7am the next morning. No sleeping in for this guy.

It was such a fun day, but a bit sad to realize that it was probably our last 4th in the Buff. On the way to the ward BBQ the song by Journey, Don't Stop Believing, started playing and we had to crank it up and sing along. That song seemed to be on the radio constantly our first summer out here and so quickly became our {theme song} for this experience in dental school. I can't believe I'm already getting nostalgic and we still have a year left! Yikes, time to reign in the hormones. :)

Happy Birthday America! We love our country!