Fourth of July

We had a fun 4th of July. We went to a family-oriented picnic for several hours in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun! Our cousin Joy is in a band and they played for a while. I knew that she was in this band, but I guess I always assumed it was a rock band or something, but it is more like a dixie band. It was fun. They had all kinds of things going on. There were volleyball tournaments, horseshoe tournaments, pony-rides, contests for the kids, and more. Thomas kept wanting to run. So I would let him go and then follow him around. There was a lot of room to run, but I had to keep watching to make sure he was staying out of the way of the different games. When we got to the horseshoes, he had such a good time. It was so funny. I don't know what it was about the horseshoes, but he was clapping each time and screamed/laughed for the good ones. The people around us kept laughing because he was having such a wonderful time. We didn't do the pony rides, because he is still too small I think. I would love to go back next year so he could do that. They were even free pony rides. Sam wanted to go too, but the horses were a bit too small for him.

Fireworks later were really nice. We arrived way to early so we were all getting super ansy by the time they got started. We sat along a nice paved trail by the river. Tons of people showed up. Lots of kids running around. I wish some of those parents would not have let their little ones go right down to the river. It was kind of steep embankment and several parents let their 3-4 yo's go right down to the river. That made Thomas really want to go too, but it seemed dangerous IMO. Maybe I'm just an over protective mom.

In other news, Thomas is now saying/signing "me". And he's sometimes spontaneously waving goodbye again. One day maybe a week ago he started that again. It's nice to see. We are also getting ready for our vacation to CO. I'm super excited since I have not been there since my last year in high school. My grandparents and all my relatives on my mom's side have not even met Thomas so I'm glad they will be able to meet him. We're also going to spend a couple days in the mountains. I can't wait to do some hiking. I'm not sure how that will work with Thomas, but we've got the backpack carrier. I need to make some extra padding for the shoulders. I'm sure it will work just fine. We aren't planning on taking any of the difficult trails. I'm just really excited. This is also Sam and my first vacation together. We never even went on a honeymoon since I got pregnant with Thomas right away. We were going to go to Italy six months after the wedding. Now we are tentatively planning on Italy for our 5 year anniversary.

Anyway, we're doing well I think. I am worried about Thomas's road safety. He doesn't look before running into the road and he's intent on "escaping" and running down the street. I don't know what to do to teach that since he is only 2 1/2 and he doesn't understand a lot. I think I'll try to find a video maybe. I'm sure that Sesame Street has one.