4th of July!

Happy Independence Day!

 We spent the long 4th of July weekend at my parent's house in Wisconsin! We left about 11:30 am on Thursday and arrived in time for dinner at Panera (of course) with Uncle Lew and Aunt JoAnne. 

It was nice to just enjoy a quiet (except for Molly's barking), relaxing weekend! On Friday we hung out in the morning. J is obsessed with doing yard work when he is at Grandpa and Grandma's house. He likes to take Grandpa's clippers and snip grass, weeds, flowers, really anything. And this weekend he discovered Grandpa's spreader (who knew my dad had so many tools?!). So J spent a lot of time spreading dirt for Grandpa (which then Grandpa would sweep up). :) 

Yard work also requires wearing Grandma's gardening gloves.

Hope had her first experience with bubbles!

In the afternoon we hit the Wirth Park pool again- J was VERY excited to go back and show daddy the pool!

Loving the water!

Tired baby when it was time to go home!

Friday night my parents were kind enough to watch the kiddies for us so we could enjoy a date night! I think this was our first real date with just the 2 of us since our anniversary last year- so almost a whole year!  We went to the Cheescake Factory- one of our favorite places, and one we can't enjoy in West Michigan! It was just as yummy as I remembered.

We were only gone like 2 and a half hours to be back to feed H before bed, but it was wonderful! So nice to enjoy a meal and being able to talk without "Hey Mommy" or "Hey Daddy" every 5 seconds. We are so glad that Hope is starting to get used to my parents, too, after seeing them every few weeks- it made it much easier to leave her knowing that she wouldn't be screaming her head off! She is very much a mommy's girl, which has its pros and cons. :)

On Saturday morning we went to the Brookfield 4th of July parade. J was SO excited for this and had been looking forward to it for days!! And it did not disappoint- he got to see army trucks, fire trucks, and he came away with candy and other free crap, I mean stuff. So he was thrilled!

Ready for the parade!

Grandma and Hope were practicing "Yay!"

The highlight for both J and H- free tennis balls! Hope had a death grip on hers.

We relaxed in the afternoon and grilled brats and burgers for dinner.

This is J's idea of relaxing.

Then in the evening we went to the Elm Grove fireworks! This was also something J was SUPER excited about! We met Uncle Lew and Aunt JoAnne at an elementary school near where they shoot off the fireworks.

Fun with glow sticks!

Surprisingly, Hope conked out during the fireworks (she must have been exhausted!). She didn't even flinch for the grand finale! Apparently that is what we have been doing wrong all this time- she needs loud fireworks in order to sleep well!

On Sunday, on our way back to MI, we stopped for a family gathering of my Wiers side of the family. Always so great to seem them! And especially now, it is fun to see our kids play together. Unfortunately I took no pics, but Adam did take one.

See? Lots of fun had by all. :)

And for anyone who is just dying to see what Hope has been up to lately, here are a few videos. HERE is a video of her showing off her crawling skills (taken a few weeks ago, so already she is much faster!).

 And HERE is a video of her doing her "tricks" which include bye-bye, so big, and clapping. Don't mind the messy bed-head and dirty face, okay? And isn't she so smart?? :)