July 7, 2009 - Happy 4th of July! (65 Weeks)

It has been quite some time since I’ve dared to venture out and deal with the insanity associated with a 4th of July outing. I guess I’m content grilling at home with a few friends over. This year, though, we rose to the challenge since the boys are so captivated by lights. Daniel’s brother and sister-in-law invited us to join her family at Huntington Beach for a BBQ. They have this outing down to a science from staking their claim to a prime pit location by 5 a.m. to the nightcap of campfire smores after a day of eating grilled goodies. The all day affair sounded great to me since I can’t remember the last time I was at a beach. Despite leaving by 7:15 a.m., we did not make it to the parking lot in time. A parade and a run caused several streets to be blocked off, and we were rerouted. This detouring caused us to lose precious time. As we were in the turn lane into the parking lot, the arm was closed to further traffic. At that moment, I believe I slowly and painfully shrieked inside my chest, “NO!!!!!!” The boys were itching to get out of their car seats and were now hungry. We found street parking quite some distance away. We fed the boys and bravely hiked our way to the beach carrying them, diaper bags, a backpack, and rolling cart with food. After returning from the second hike back to the car for the rest of our stuff, we got to kick back and relax. I have to laugh because here I wanted the boys to enjoy their first 4th of July fireworks show, and, of course, they were fast asleep before the show even started. At least they got to wear their patriotic shirts and play with their beach buckets given to them for their birthday.
Holiday Mishap: It got windy and the tent started swaying. An ice chest that was used to help anchor it down tilted onto my backpack and wet its contents. My pink phone has gone to cell phone heaven. Oh, and my pink camera had a lens malfunction. So, I do not have 4th of July pictures. Daniel’s niece has pictures that will hopefully be forwarded.