4th of July 2017.

As you all probably know, the 4th of July is my favorite holiday ever. I mean, birthdays are a huge deal and America's?! It doesn't get any bigger. I'm pretty sure I inform people of that every year. ;) This year, was no exception. It was just as awesome as I expected it to be regardless of it landing on a Tuesday. And I always go through my 10,837 photos after it's over and think, I didn't take enough pictures....this is the truth. I'm not kidding. Ha ha.

We had a cookout at our house on Sunday. The weather was perfection and the drinks were flowing! The kids had a grand old time playing and splashing in the pool while the adults relaxed. Now, rewind to last week, we weren't sure if we were even going to have a get together since the storms that came through had destroyed our outdoor patio section! Literally. We came home to chairs at the bottom of the pool, a metal umbrella snapped in half, glass shattered all over the patio and IN the POOL! (Ugh) Even my palms were tossed about the yard like rag dolls. I thought, great! How on earth are we going to get the glass out of the pool!?! To my surprise, there are actual divers that do just this for a living! Yeah....pretty cool. So he came and spent a couple hours in the pool and saved the cookout. Ty helped clean up the rest of the patio and we concluded it was microbursts or something that had done the dirty work since the rest of our yard was untouched.

So Sunday was a great time with good food and awesome friends. Of course Ty and I had to work on Monday but I got out early to do some relaxing in the pool by myself. Which may I inform you, was glorious. Then Ty met me for a impromptu date....all of but 35 minutes and a quick couple drinks at a new little place in downtown called the Sinclair.  We take what we can. Then we picked up Maxwell for a haircut. It was time getting really long and crazy in the summer heat. He normally HATES getting his hair cut. We used to have the "Hair Fairy" come to our house to cut his hair but after holding him down one too many times and watching him scream bloody murder, we decided to try a different approach. We took him to a little shop outside of town where "Vinny" propped him up on the chair by himself, gave him a  lolli-pop and went to town cutting his hair. It was a miracle! No crying or even a whimper. Vinny said, "He just wanted to hang with the big boys, not the hair fairy!" Ha. So that may have been the truth.

Anyhow, we packed up the kids and went to Ty's father's house on the lake to eat Smore's and watch fireworks. Granted, the view from his house would have been perfect, we decided to go out on the dock and watch them on the water. This was the first year that Maxwell really appreciated them. His little "Wows!!" made me smile. After, we had some drinks by the fire and then headed home to get some sleep. When we woke up on the actual 4th of July, we ate breakfast with the windows open and relaxed a little before heading downtown to watch the Patriotic Parade. Scarlett's favorite part was the "Patriotic Pooches" all dressed up in their red, white and blue. We walked Congress Park and ate Smoothie Bowls, pet doggies and found baby ducklings. It was all about the kids. They really enjoyed the day and that alone made MY day. Then we packed up the car yet again and headed north to my sister's house for another cookout. I was planning on laying low and not drinking for the evening since I had consume more than my share over the weekend.....but! My sister made the most amazing Margarita's that I think I've ever drank! So I had one....or two. Ok 3. 

And we laughed and swam and had a great time. We even took a walk around their neighborhood before packing up the car to head back for Saratoga's Party in the Park and Fireworks. On the way home, around 5:30, the kids fell asleep and wouldn't wake up for anything. We laid them in Maxwell's room together and there they laid until the next morning when I had to wake them both up. Ha!! They were pooped. So we didn't even see fireworks on the 4th. But I can assure you that they had a blast of a long weekend. I hope you all had a great 4th!!