Happy 4th

Today was a strange day. It's weird to have a Wednesday off, right smack in the middle of the work week. All day, we were confused as to what day it actually was. It felt like a Saturday. It felt like a Sunday.

It was just weird.

We didn't actually do much to celebrate the 4th of July today--just took advantage of the day off by running a few extra errands, spending time with our girl, and being productive around the house during her nap. We did go to my in-laws' for dinner--hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, mac and cheese, and corn on the cob--so that was decidedly a very "American" dinner. :)

Because the holiday fell during the week, some of the surrounding towns scheduled their official celebrations--parades and fireworks--for last weekend. On Saturday morning, my brother was marching with the fire department in one of the parades, so we met my mom (who had Hunter) and my grandma there to watch it.

The parade started pretty early in the day (10 a.m.), but it was definitely warm out, even then. And the parade was no joke--it lasted an hour and a half!

The kids were so, so good. Hunter actually stayed in his stroller THE ENTIRE TIME, which was amazing considering he is 3 years old and tends to be a bit wild (he is a boy, after all). Nora was good in her stroller for about an hour but then she wanted nothing more to do with it so we let her out.

There's Ty! He's the one right there in front, with his hand outstretched toward us.

Nora's first temp tattoo! :) We were given SO.MUCH.CANDY at the parade--all of which we confiscated from Nora before she even had a chance to really see it--so it was refreshing when a local swim club came by with the tats instead! Nora is obsessed with stickers so I figured she would love this, and I was right. She proudly showed it off on her arm for the rest of the weekend (I removed it with rubbing alcohol on Sunday night without issue).

Michael smartly thought to bring chalk in case we had to occupy little ones and keep them in one place for a little bit. It was perfect!

Nora still took in plenty of the parade.

And did some marching of her own.

So cute! And so fun.

It was nice timing, because we were still able to get Nora home in time for her nap--which she REALLY needed, poor kid was worn out after so much activity in the morning!

Sadly, we went another year without any fireworks. It's just too hard for us with a child as young as Nora. The fireworks around here don't start until 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. and it's just WAY too far past Nora's bedtime. Do any of you brave fireworks with small children? I just can't see it working out well. And to get a babysitter (one of the grandmas!) would be possible, but we would feel too badly because they'd have to deal with Tessa, who barks and trembles like crazy the entire time (she hates fireworks!).

I hope you all had a happy 4th of July. Don't forget to send thoughts--or a little prayer--up for my brother and all of the other men and women currently serving our country so that we (and others) can continue enjoying the freedom that we do.

And just for fun, check out my little Nora, one year ago today. How is this possible?

Now, back to work tomorrow. Whaaa? :)

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And so it begins

God, I love this time of year. It is amazing how far sunny, warm weather goes toward improving my mood on a daily basis.

It's not as difficult to get out of bed most mornings.

We sleep with the windows open and wake up to the sounds of birds chirping.

I kick off the covers and stretch in the cool, crisp air, inhaling it deeply through my nose.

It's glorious. And don't even get me started on how nice it has been to spend so much time outdoors. The finishing touches on our kitchen renovation have been pushed aside day after day as we find excuses to do things in the sun outside. Lawn mowing and garden planting, and trips to the farmer's market and gardening center.

Not to mention the summer clothes for toddler girls that I get to break out of the closet.

Love. it.

Last weekend, we had Hunter's birthday party, which was just a portion of a Saturday that was perfection. The weather, the agenda, the company we kept... perfection.

 

Hunter is THREE! (Well, not officially until tomorrow.) Check out the big guy blowing out his candle. Cuteness.

Nora was on the cupcakes like white on rice. Girlfriend has built-in radar that lets her know if dessert is within a 50 ft. radius. She's her mama's daughter, that's for sure. She ate this entire thing by herself.

At one point, Nora found the coloring table and crayons, and proceeded to spend a half an hour sitting there, testing out each of the colors with a little squiggly line on the paper. I really had no idea that she even enjoys coloring at this age (except for how she plays with sidewalk chalk). Whoops. Sorry for stifling your creativity, kid.

 

One of Hunter's gifts was a bubble machine...

 

...which led to several minutes of bubble chasing.

 

It was such a good day.

 

I'm hoping for much more of the same for this Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy the long weekend with your families and friends. Here's hoping for time outdoors, colorful photos, lots of sunshine and laughs, and maybe a few beers.

 

It's the unofficial kickoff of summer, y'all. And I'm totally in my element.

 

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Independence Day

I'm working on catching up on posts recapping our vacation to Mexico, but in the meantime, I wanted to get these photos up from a little 4th of July photo shoot I did with Nora. The light was so nice in the evening, and it was beautiful out. The weather seemed even more perfect in comparison to the over-the-top humidity we had grown accustomed to in Mexico!

Here are some of my favorites with Nora in her red, white, and blue!

These days, taking photos of Nora is nearly impossible if she doesn't have something to play with. In this case, she *insisted* on holding my keys. Every time I tried to take them away from her to snap a few shots, she cried. Oh well.

Then, her "toy" of choice was my lens cap. Whatever works, right?

After being close for a few weeks now, Nora officially learned to clap today. Now her hands make the clapping noise and everything. It is so adorable, I keep making her do it over and over again! (She claps on demand as long as you say, "Yayyy!")

I kept noticing on vacation how long her eyelashes have gotten. Beautiful. Love her pouty little lips, too.

In other news, Nora learned another trick today, too. We went into her room to get her up from her afternoon nap to find her like this:

Sitting up in her crib! Which is certainly not how we left her. She figured out how to sit up from a lying down position, which she has never done before. She is changing so much every day!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I hope you enjoyed your holiday.

Stay tuned for more posts from our vacation. For those who read through Google Reader or a feed, you won't have any issues. For those who come to the blog, I'll pin a post to the top of the page to let you know when I've updated below. :)

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Fireworks

Happy 4th of July!

Last night, we went to a local fireworks show (yes, it was a day early). Of course, I just had to bring my camera and play with slow shutter speeds! These are a few of my favorites. I hope you're all enjoying your long weekends.

Happy Birthday, America!

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Whirlpool Jet

Today we traveled to Lewiston, N.Y. (right on the Canadian border) to ride the Whirlpool Jet. This is something we've been wanting to do for a couple of years now, but have never gotten around to it. A few weeks ago, for my birthday, Michael surprised me with tickets as one of my gifts.

We got to Lewiston around noon to check in for our 1:00 p.m. ride. Once we were through registration and had our wrist bands, we went back out to the car to eat some lunch.

We found a couple of picnic tables to eat and relax at for a little bit.

Soon, we went in to meet up with our group for a short introduction/safety explanation, and then boarding.

I didn't want to risk losing my sunglasses off of my face, so I was squinting like... well, like this. :)

Before boarding, they gave us life jackets, as well as aqua shoes. Since we have our cool waterproof camera case, we were able to keep our camera on us, but most people had to leave everything in their cars or the cubbies provided. You see... it's a rough ride. And um, you get ABSOLUTELY SOAKED.

A few "before" pictures.

The ride starts off pretty mildly. Slowly at first, and then, once out of the wake zone, they open up the engines and hit full speed (50 mph). They "warmed" us up with a 360 degree spin in the boat, which was enough to get us a little bit wet. But nothing like what we were soon to experience.

Here's a video of us going through a little "practice" rapid:
That got us wet. We didn't know it at the time, but... THAT WAS NOTHING.

After that, we rode further down the Niagara River to some more serious looking rapids.
Once we got there (these are Class 5 rapids), they slowed down the boat off to the side just so we could watch for a minute. See that blue boat over there on the upper right corner of the photo? It's just like ours, only it's COVERED, so its riders don't get drenched. Before we experienced the rapids, we watched this boat go through first.
See how the boat is practically being swallowed by that monster wave? Well, imagine us, sitting in the SECOND ROW of that boat. With NO ROOF ON IT. That 10-foot wave hit us right in the faces. And on top of our heads. It was hilariously awesome. And wet (and a bit cold). Like, diving-into-an-ocean-wave wet. Did I mention wet?

Unfortunately, we couldn't get photos or video of us tackling the Class 5 rapids because, as it turns out, when these monster waves hit you in the face, they do it with a bit of force. The guides were pretty strict about us keeping both hands holding onto the safety bars at all times. It didn't take us long to figure out why.

We did 5-6 rounds of "Let's see if we can drown all of the people in the first 5 rows of the boat" before our 45 minute ride was up and we had to head back.
We were completely soaked from head to toe. Repeatedly. Once we got back to the car, we took a few "after" photos for good measure.
We had an absolutely gorgeous day, and the Whirlpool Jet was an absolute blast. We would definitely do it again, and it's highly recommended for those of you who may visit Western New York/Niagara Falls!

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