Fourth of July Weekend

We had a very busy 4th of July weekend this year. We spent all day Saturday with my parents and sister celebrating my father's 57th birthday. We started the day off with a swim in their neighborhood pool. The water was definitely cooler than it had been due to all the rain we got the previous three days. James was not his usual brave self and wanted to keep his floaty on and not swim on his own. I think it was a combination of the cold water and the fact that it was about 3" deeper than normal. Alas, the swimming did not last long due to rain and the need to adjust the chemicals in the water. We left the pool, got changed and then headed out to Joe's Crabshack for a nice birthday lunch. All three boys ate well. James even had two kids pizzas. The adults all enjoyed their seafood and yummy dessert. With nice full bellies, we headed off to catch Toy Story 3 (Jude and Brian went to Sears to look at yard tools). Everyone really enjoyed the movie. The story was really great and there was a lot of action. After the movie, we headed back to my parents house to relax and eat some dinner. It was a bit on the late side so we picked up Chuy's to go instead of loading everyone up and heading to the restaurant. We called it a day around 9 pm and headed home.

Saturday was a less busy day. Brian took James and John to go see The Last Airbender while I stayed home with a napping Jude. Brian and I traded off taking a nap as we were both tired from the previous day. At 5, we headed down to our friend, Kristen's house for a yummy cookout. We had the traditional 4th of July meal of burgers and hot dogs for dinner. For dessert we had yummy chocolate cake and sundaes to celebrate our friend, Darren's birthday. After that we did sparklers and some small fireworks in the front yard. At 8:30 we started walking to the high school to watch the firework show put on by the local outdoor shopping mall - La Centerra. The show was supposed to start at 9:15 and we could see some fireworks off in the distance. Finally around 9:45 the real show started and it ended up being well worth the wait. The fireworks were beautiful and the the weather was perfect. It cooled down and there was a nice cool breeze. Once the show was over, we walked back home and headed to bed. Unfortunately, our back neighbors decided that 11 pm was the right time to start setting their own personal fireworks off. Man, they were so loud. It sounded like they were setting them off right in our backyard. They finally stopped sometime after 1 am and I was able to get some sleep.

Monday was another low key day. Everyone got up and I was able to get my normal Monday chores and run accomplished before we hopped in the car and drove up to College Station. We ate lunch with my family and then took them out to the land we are purchasing about 30 minutes outside of College Station. Everyone was really impressed and excited for us. On our way back to Jocelyn's house, we stopped at Sears to check out some lawn tools that we'll need to maintain the land and help clean out some of the underbrush in the woods. After that, we picked Whinnie up and headed back home to Katy. Overall, it was a great holiday weekend.