A Few Loose Ends

Since we were going to be out of town on Evie's brithday, Ben wanted to let her open her gifts before we left. Because Kara went out 5 days ahead of us, and wouldn't see Evie on her actual birthday, we had the gift opening before she flew out on Sunday. 

Yep, that's Kara wearing a jacket in July. 

She loved her gift from Kara!

She also had some birthday cards from family to open. 

The true reason Ben wanted her to have her gifts was so she could bring her new Galaxy tablet on vacation with us. We didn't have much else for her, so told her she might get a few more gifts on her real birthday. Kiersten also decided to wait to get her a gift until we were in Idaho. 

Kara missed the swim meet conference by 1 day. That was kind of a bummer. But Evie and Kiersten both swam great and got some ribbons. 

With all of our packing and running around like mad people, Jingles could feel change coming. At least that's my only guess as to why she jumped into the hot bathtub with me. 

She didn't fall in. She didn't snoop around for a minute, and then hop in out of curiosity. She walked into the bathroom without hesitating, and jumped right on in. She was easy to find, even with how fast she tore out of the bathroom. We just followed the puddles. 

I don't think she was expecting such hot water, or such deep water. 

I got some nice scratches out of the whole event. 

So now she knows. 

Baby, You're A Firework

On the third of July, we met up with some friends to watch the Twin Oaks fireworks. The kids had a pretty fun time, and I was glad to go in case we didn't feel like going the next night. We sat in the DQ parking lot, so it was easy to eat dinner, watch fireworks, and eat ice cream. 

Kiersten and I got up bright and early the morning of the 4th so we could drive downtown for the parade. She was marching in the parade with her fencing club. They asked the kids to wear their fencing gear. It was brutally hot, so we brought her gear along, but I didn't have her wear it to walk over to the meet up area. 

She was excited when she saw the balloon she'd be walking with. 

She also liked walking through downtown early in the morning when the streets were pretty empty. While I was trying to find parking, we ended up behind all the parade floats, so that was annoying to me and fun to her. 

Since it was so hot, most of the kids opted not to wear their gear, and I couldn't blame them. Kiersten decided to wear her knickers, and I walked the rest of her gear back to the car. 

She was given a foam sword to carry around. She didn't want it at first because it's more like a saber than a foil, but ended up taking one and saying it was for Evie. 

She couldn't hold the balloon, the candy bag, and the sword all at once, so those knickers came in handy. There were donuts and water bottles for the volunteers, so I grabbed some water and threw it in the candy bag. It didn't stay cold very long, but was nice to have. 

I didn't realize that the parents were expected to help carry the balloon. I thought I'd sit and watch the parade, haha. But since Kiersten was the littlest by far, I was asked to walk next to her in case she lost control of her string. I assured the guy she wouldn't let go, but she totally did. In her defense, the wing was catching air, and she got lifted off her feet, so she should have let go. 

We were behind Uncle Sam. His feet had a tough time staying inflated, so we were entertained watching him get filled back up over and over. 

The Golden Dragon was behind us, and didn't appear to have any issues in the heat. 

All the kids loved these guys!

Ready to hit the route! The poor Eagle slowly deflated as we walked. The opposite wing from Kiersten ended up completely flat, (which was why her wing kept catching air), and the legs deflated too. It just got hotter the lower the balloon hung over us. By the end of the route, the people in the middle were carrying it on their backs, basically. Kiersten and I took turns holding the string and passing out candy. She really preferred giving out the candy.

Once we were done, we helped hold the balloon down while the guy deflated it. I had no idea he would climb inside and crawl around unzipping and deflating parts. It took way longer than I'd have expected given how much air we already lost walking the parade. 

A bunch of streets were closed for the parade, or blocked off while the Budweiser clydesdales got loaded into their trailer, so we had a long walk to get up to the America Center where the USA Fencing nationals were being held. The long hot walk was not so bad, and we got to walk past the newly redone grounds at the Arch. It was pretty neat, and we were tempted to go in, but wanted to get on our way. 

It took us at least 20 minutes to get to the convention center. We were pretty relieved to see that building. 

The air conditioning felt so wonderful. Kiersten enjoyed seeing the whole set up and watching some fencing. I volunteered a few days earlier, so I was honestly just happy to let her wander a bit. 

We got our volunteer t-shirts and decided to change into them there, given how sweaty we both were. It felt like heaven to be clean and dry. 

We had to walk another 30 minutes in the heat to get back to where we parked. I almost wished we skipped the fencing nationals and just left after the parade, but Kiersten thought it was so cool. I guess the shirts also made it worthwhile. It took me over 15 minutes just to get out of downtown with so many streets closed and so many one way streets. Kiersten was asleep within minutes of hitting the freeway. 

Meanwhile... back in Ballwin, Ben, Kara, and Evie were at the neighborhood bike parade. The kids love riding to the pool behind the firetruck. 

Ben only got a few pictures. I'm sure the girls are in there somewhere. 

Once at the pool, he took no pictures, but it was a fun party. Kiersten and I got home at 1pm. We got changed into our bathing suits, and imagine my surprise when she wanted to walk to the pool! My instincts told me no way, not everyone got a refreshing nap in the car. But then I thought of the lack of parking at the pool, so we started to walk. Luckily, Ben saw on the doorbell camera that we walked out the front door and came to pick us up. I couldn't say no to that! I took no pictures at the pool as well. I just wanted to eat lunch and relax. There was happily still plenty of food left when we got there. Needless to say, I crashed as soon as we got home. Ben fell asleep as well, and we were frantically woken by a crying Evie at 9pm. She was upset we were going to miss the fireworks. She did not care we saw fireworks the previous evening. We reluctantly piled everyone into the car and drove to the Arby's parking lot to see some fireworks. We forgot to grab chairs, or any snacks other than twizzlers, so curly fries were for dinner. Luckily, we did remember to bring all the glow in the dark accessories that have been in our Independence Day box for at least the last 2 years. Fun was had by all. 

I forgot to take pictures of the fireworks in the sky. Ha!