Independence Day

The Fourth of July -- Independence Day -- is, I think, my very favorite holiday.  It's summer.  To a greater extent than Christmas and Easter, people actually celebrate for the right reasons.  (Although as I saw on the Tonight Show, and this blows my mind, some people in this country don't even know what the heck the Fourth of July is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQ6XgXeNuY)  I just love summer funtivities and I love being an American, and so I love Independence Day.

Here's a look at Bobby's first Fourth of July:

Well, I guess I should start with July 3.  Ben, Bob, and I went to Plains Park in Danvers to check out "family fun day" late in the afternoon.  There really wasn't much to interest us other than eating overpriced greasy food, except we did get to see a bunch of parachuters jump from a plane above us and land in the field.  I would totally be into that.

Here's Bob hanging out (he wasn't too interested in the show, as you might guess):

We didn't end up staying at the park for the fireworks.  Instead we opted to stop at Dick & June's for ice cream and park at the Danversport Yacht Club to watch.  Less of a hassle to get home from there.  Plus, I just had to have some ice cream.  Mmmm... mud pie.

Bob waiting patiently for the fireworks to begin:

Bob and my ice cream still waiting, and Ben trying to find the patriotic station on the radio, per my request.

My two loves, still waiting...

And... fireworks!  Our spot wasn't the best -- could have been a lot closer -- but we didn't mind.

Bobby even paid attention for a while.

Ben took tons of pictures of the fireworks.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

And I love the way this one turned out:

Bubbs was extremely good-natured considering it was way past his bedtime.  He thinks he's very mature on special occasions like this.

The next day, the actual 4th of July, we went to Phil and Beth Cook's for a little gathering.  Here's a sneak peek at next year, when the little guy growing in Beth will be about the same size as Bob, and Phil will no doubt have just as much trouble deciding which sunscreen to use on which parts of his body, and little guy will no doubt have just as much fun chewing on the bottles as Bob did.

This is Phil and Beth's dog, Tuck:

And this is Bob after getting a giant dog tongue slopped all over his face:

Here's a good shot of Bobby's sunscreen-aided mohawk:

(Above and below Bob is sitting on a hot tub, which Phil turned into a cold tub to create a perfect-sized swimming pool for Bob.  He loved it.  I didn't take a picture because I was too busy keeping him from drowning.)

Trying to eat watermelon slice like a kid:

Little power nap in Erica's arms:

Tearing leaves off some produce:

The nap definitely wasn't long enough...

... but he managed to stay in a pretty good mood anyway.

We got home just in time for me to put Bubby to bed and go outside to watch the sunset.  It turned out to be, I think, one of the most breathtaking sunsets I've ever seen.  I mean, it literally took my breath away.  Here are a couple of the many photos I took, without even a touch of post processing:

I was fortunate enough to happen to witness a fly-over in the distance as well.  See the four jets in the clouds?

It was magical.  When I got back inside, Bobby was whining in his crib.  I think he knew he was missing some excitement.  Being the fun, special-occassion-loving mom that I am, I got him up and brought him outside to watch fireworks from the street outside our house.  We can see lots of fireworks from here, including in Salem across the water.  Although the professional shows are rather far away, there are also a bunch set off by people around the cove.  Makes for a good long night of hearing the pops that make Independence Day unlike any other time of year.  

We sure had a great weekend.