Star Spangled Weekend

We packed up the car and headed out last Thursday for our annual 4th of July trip to the beach. It ended up taking an extra hour and a half to get there due to a punctured tire but we finally made it. And I'm thankful that happened while Paul was with me and I wasn't by myself! We met my mom for dinner as soon as we got there and we learned that hard way that eating all you can eat crab leg is much more fun without a squirmy toddler who had just ridden in the car for 5+ hours. Thankfully the crab legs were totally worth it.

Friday we got groceries and went to the beach while we waited for our good friends, the Dickey's to arrive. They came with us last year for the 4th and I'm hoping we didn't scare them away this year and we can make this an annual thing. Our kids (there were 7 of them in total) had such a good time playing together. And there was far less tattling than last year. Yay! We mostly hung out at the beach but took the kids to the pool and arcade as well.

Sunday night the kids were super excited to see fireworks. They talked about it all day. We ordered pizza for dinner (it's just simply not that easy to take 7 kids out for dinner during a holiday weekend) and hung out at the condo until time to go. Paul & I decided not to take Jacob out since the fireworks didn't start until 10pm. We load up the 6 other kids and head out to find some fireworks. We decide to just go up to the beach for sure we'd be able to see some fireworks. We find good parking and the girls are practically running to get to the beach. However, when we step off the walkway and into the sand the giggling stops and the panic set in. You see it was like "Fireworkpalooza" out on the beach. There were fireworks going off everywhere. Everywhere. It did sort of sound like a battlefield. Or at least what I would think a battlefield would sound like. The girls - all 6 of them - bust out in tears and screams. Seriously. After a few minutes Lainee, the youngest of them all, Lily and Addie settle down. Emma and Julia, however, remain in tears with Emma screaming "I don't like this. We're going to die. I want to go home." It was pitiful really. So finally after about 15 minutes I took 4 of them home. Lily and Lainee stayed to actually see some fireworks. The beach spot would have been great. Everywhere you looked up and down the beach fireworks were going off. Beautiful!

The Dickey's headed home Monday and we decided to stay out of the sun since a few of us were a little toasty after Sunday's day at the beach. We had a relaxing, fun family day with just the 6 of us. Today we headed home with half our crew. The littlest ones are staying at "Camp Gagi's" for 3 days! I can't believe I actually left them. But, I have a million PTA things to do this week and my mom graciously agreed to keep them so I didn't have to worry about childcare. She's a saint! I'm just crossing my fingers and praying that Jacob sleeps OK so that "Camp Gagi" will remain open!

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Sadly I didn't take my camera out much. Boo hoo.