4th of July Weekend: Day 3

We woke up early and headed out with friends to Lake Sonoma the morning of the 4th of July. I was surprised there were not that many people out on the lake. There were 3 families and 3 jetski's so we all took turns going out on the water or hanging on shore playing with the kids. Grey rode the jetski with just about everyone because he didn't want to get off. He went out first with another mom (she said she couldn't get a word out of him the whole time which for Grey means that he is having a blast!), then with Zippy, and then went back out with me without every getting off! We had set up our little area in a no wake zone and until we got to open water, all I heard was "go fast, momma, go fast!" Zoe loved hanging out on the beach, watching the other kids play and taking a little snooze in the stroller. It was a perfect 4th of July morning!

Practice racing on the jetski's the night before

 "Mrs. Ruggles" and Grey

 Trying to figure out the squirt gun

Cruising with dad

Boys and their toys :)

 The little boys trying to warm up in the sunshine, the water was ok but cold when you got out...they both were shivering! (and please ignore the big black spot in the picture, it was Zippy's finger)

 Snoozing Zoe

 Happy 4th of July!

We had to leave the lake to head down to Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's annual 4th of July/Family Reunion/Wedding Anniversary Party. It was so hot that Grey and daddy hit the pool the second we got there. Zippy asked Grey if he wanted to jump off the diving board (Grey had never gone off of one before) and he jumped in like he had always been doing it. We wanted him to get used to his life jacket because we will be going out on the boat later this month back in Missouri...and I think he will be just fine :) He figured out very quickly how to roll front to back, back to front, and how to kick to the side of the pool. He was in the pool for almost 3 hours before we convinced him to get out and have some dinner. Zoe even went in for a little dip, it was so hot out and she needed to cool off too. I forgot her hat and Grey reluctantly let her wear his...even though he wasn't wearing it, it was hard for him to hand it over to her.

 Auntie Zephy, Matt, and Zoe cooling off in the a/c!

After we got back home that evening, I realized I did not get any pictures of both of the kids together. This is as good as I could get because Grey was wiped out from such a busy day! He of course is wearing his USA soccer jersey!!

Zoe was a little more cooperative for her first 4th of July photo shoot!

But not much!

4th of July Weekend: Day 2

The fun never stops around here! Grey headed off with daddy, our friend, Craig, and his son, Dino, to go to Grey's first ever baseball game. Grey was very excited and talked about it all morning long. Momma and Zoe were going to go with them but it was a 1 pm game and really hot so we decided to rest up for the rest of the fun that was still to be had this weekend. 

Grey and Dino were so excited!!

 Grey shared his joy of cotton candy with Dino

 They sat one row back just behind home plate, seats couldn't have been better!

 It was so very hot that they had to dip into the shade to cool off. My boys were dripping with sweat!

While the boys were off playing, Zoe decided it was a good time to catch up on her sleep. With all the fun yesterday and the late night from the fire works, she was a little deprived. Plus, since her brother was  gone, there was peace and quiet at the house and she could enjoy sleeping or playing without having her brother coming by every few seconds to love on her!

4th of July Weekend: Day 1

Is there any other better way to kick off the 4th of July weekend other than watermelon?? I started cutting it up for dinner and said that it seemed really heavy. Grey asked to hold it and promptly started to eat it once it was in his hands :)

 We headed down to the Children's Discovery Museum in Sausalito early Saturday morning. It was absolutely beautiful down by the water and the boys enjoyed finding sticks until the museum opened.

 The real reason we went there was that they have a Curious George exhibit and Grey is obsessed with Curious George. It is the only cartoon that he will actually sit and watch. He was so excited when his favorite celebrity tv star made his appearance!

 Grey had no problem wiggling his way through the crowd to give George a high five. 

 Then we explored the museum some more...

 He was on the "Titanic"

 Zoe got to play too! 

 We have a busy weekend planned and Grey starts preschool on Tuesday so we decided to watch fireworks on Saturday. We headed out to Monte Rio on the Russian River to watch fireworks.  We got out to the river around 7:30, thinking the fireworks would start shortly after 9. It turns out that there was some sort of delay and they didn't start the boat parade until 9:30 (they had torches out in the water to light the way and did a spot light on each boat as it went by), then they did a water show where the fire department shot water off of the bridge with different colors on it and then projected different images on the water like an eagle, the Liberty Bell, and the American Flag. Finally we got to see the fireworks at about 10:20 and it was worth the wait. We were in a valley so the "boom" would echo off the hills around us and amplify the sound. It was amazing to hear and watch as we sat on the river beach surrounded  by tree covered hills. Grey curled up on my lap with a blanket and snuggled during the whole show pointing out the ones he liked. Zoe slept on daddy's lap the whole show :) It was alot of fun and next year we need to make it a big group outing!

We left the house around bed time and Grey was passed out before we even got out there! He rallied though and made it through the whole evening without a meltdown and only going a little slap happy :)

Grey loved to people watch. And if you have ever been out to any place on the Russian River, you know we were in prime people watching territory!

While we were waiting for it to get dark, we decided to treat Grey to his first cotton candy. I handed it to him and asked him if he knew what to do with it.  He started waving it around like a sparkler :) He liked it for about 3 minutes and then went back to playing so momma had to finish it for him!

Dancing with everyone on the beach

momma and Zoe hanging out

Zoe and Daddy playing

Grey did start to get a little goofy because he was soooo tired at this point. He had slept for maybe 20 minutes in the car back from the museum and for about 20 minutes on the way out to the fireworks and never fell asleep for a nap at home (even though he did lay down for over 2.5 hours, I was determined to get him to sleep but he was more determined to stay awake!) We almost didn't go because of it! He was cracking everyone up around us by deciding that he didn't want to sit with us anymore and would move to sit with other groups. 

As you can see daddy kept trying to convince him to come sit with us but this is as close as he wanted to come. I really thought we had a few years before he didn't want to be associated with us!

 A rare picture...the whole family!