The 4th of July

I love the 4th of July. Probably my favorite holiday. It's warm out, it's relaxing, it's an excuse to get outside on the water and grill and have drinks. We celebrated extra hard this year and it was the very best.

Friday was a work/daycare holiday so I took Abe to play in the splash park with Livvy. He was his silly little self. Observed the other kids and wanted to follow Livvy around, but was too chicken to get wet. He warmed up towards the end and was going in a small splash area to fill up his bucket. Livvy and Abe shared freeze pops and snacks and finished their morning with some time at the park. I love watching them play.

Typical Abe, Livvy is off splashing in the water, and Abe is sitting on the sidelines, saying "Ivvy, come here!"

Abe refused to nap that afternoon other than a few minutes while I laid in the crib with him. Luckily, he was a trooper on our next adventure. He came along to Surly Brewing, which lived up to its name as a destination brewery. Beautiful grounds, lots of space and tables, amazing food, kid friendly, and decent beer, too. Zach and I haven't stopped talking about our hog frites since we left Surly, they were that amazing. Abe made friends with a bunch of kids and was especially smitten with a little girl named Charlotte. He did great, and Zach and I got to catch up with our friends.

Because we couldn't end the day there, we headed to a tiny little silo brewery, Bang Brewing. It was so quaint and cute and the guys loved the beer. I held Adelaide most of the the time we were there and I just couldn't get enough of her, she is such a gorgeous and sweet baby.

Saturday was America's day! I had invited Cass and Shawn to try to check out the Afton parade with us, because we wanted to do something fun and patriotic. I was especially excited because they were offering trolley rides up an down the main street. Abe cried part of the drive down to Afton, but then was immediately silenced as he saw the trolley. He was so cute as we got on it and just looked out the window as we rode down the street. That was worth the drive and the heat. He LOVED it. He kept asking about it the rest of the afternoon.

TROLLEY!!

We watched most of the parade and collected some candy, and then Abe joined the hundreds of other children at the playground. He was getting so brave and was playing quite hard! Us adults had a beverage and talked shop. :) Coincidentally, we had 2 adults in blue and 2 in red and we looked so festive! 

Abe fell asleep immediately upon leaving the playground, but once again only slept about 30 minutes. We drove up to Rush City to do some more celebrating and I worried about him getting cranky, but he was a champ!

When we arrived, he took some time to relax and played in the water a bit. We searched for rocks, walked to the playground, played ball, and ate snacks. Abe actually munched on some steak and "apples" (potatoes) and we kept him busy until the fireworks started. 

Oh my goodness, his excitement. I wish I could have bottled it up. He was wowed. I was actually quite freaked out by some amateur fireworks happening right next to our camper, but even me being a freak wasn't deterring Abe from enjoying the show. He just got so excited to guess what color they would be and to hear the boom. Towards the end of the show, he would lean into me and tell me he was ready for night night but then he would get curious again and start watching the fireworks. That crazy kid stayed up until 10:30 and he did wonderfully. His favorite were the purple fireworks. I don't think he stopped talking about those until 3 days after the 4th!

Sunday morning he was in good spirits and wowed me again with his bravery in the lake. He wouldn't take his shoes off, but he splashed, ran in the water, played with sand, did "big jumps" that sometimes got him all wet, and enjoyed every minute. What a fun summer activity! I couldn't help catching the picture of him walking back home with his towel. What a sweetie. 

Best weekend ever? It was close!