3rd and 4th of July!

So Thursday the 3rd started our vacation! We did Applebees for dinner (3 times in 2 weeks! So bad!), Piper was less than cooperative, but we had expected it. The surrounding patrons were relatively understanding, even giving me direction as Piper took off running around the corner and then into the kitchen! Seriously, the kid lease is sounded better and better every day!

We then headed over to the Urbandale carnival to do some rides since we knew we weren't going to be doing much on the morning of the 4th. I refused to do the Tilt-a-Whirl this time and did the kiddy roller coaster instead!

and my first time on the big slide! HA!

Daddy took her on the bumper cars! This girl loves rides and $20 in tickets does not go far in these carnivals!

 

On the 4th we hung out most of the day, we had the neighborhood party at 4 and we had to pack for vacation! We decided to skip the parade. After the nice, relaxing, not busy Johnston Green Days parade the thought of parking a mile away and fighting 2000 other kids for candy just didn't seem that fun for any of us, especially when the kids never really eat the candy anyway. The weather was perfect, so we tried to spend time outdoors to enjoy the day!

 

She now poses like a cheerleader ALL of the time! And she keeps mentioning going back to cheer class, so we'll see. We aren't doing anything until fall no matter what!

At 4, we headed over to the neighborhood block party. They have such a nice house and incredible pool/patio/yard set up! It's always nice to get together to talk and hang out with the people who live around us.

Stinker!

Steve conveniently had to get 5 stitches in his hand earlier in the week so opted to stay out of the pool...leaving pool duty open for me! Lucky me *insert sarcasm*!

The monster did not get in the pool, it was chilly in her defense...she ran around the pool, looked like she was going to jump in the pool, chased the dogs and just wore us out!

We wanted to stay longer than we did, but really needed to get the kids home and packed to leave!  So we didn't do any fireworks either. I kinda feel bad, but with the way things worked out this year, it just didn't make sense to try to fight crowds and parking to keep them happy and up late! Is this just us being lazy? HA!