The 4^th of July fell on a Wednesday this year, so Justin and I also took off Thursday and Friday to make it an extra-long weekend! Originally, we were going to head to Baltimore for the weekend, but when that didn’t work out, we decided to make it a staycation and plan some fun local events while still getting some stuff done around the house.

Tuesday night we went over to Papa and Grandma’s for some evening swimming and pizza. After a long search, I found a place online (googlesnmore.com) that would make Avery’s prescription swim goggles. She is finally acclimated with them – the new goggles coupled with their new swim teacher has really led to significant improvement. Harper too is also greatly improving. Emerson was already further ahead with her swim skills, but she too is progressing and hanging out in the deep end of the pool now.

For the actual 4^th, we hung out and did organizing around the house most the morning. We had the girls help us go through their toys and donate ones that were too young for them. Our neighborhood parade is now Labor Day weekend so we weren’t missing any neighborhood festivities by spending the morning indoors organizing. After lunch, we headed to the Vienna Community Center, where Emerson and Harper went on a couple water slides (Avery didn’t feel like going). Afterwards, with the girls in their bathing suits already, we headed to my parents for a little more swimming. Avery and Emerson wanted to see the fireworks while Harper did not. We left Harper with my parents for a sleepover and Avery, Emerson, Justin and I went to Southside Park in Vienna, where the fireworks were being displayed. I had not seen real fireworks in over 10 years and I was amazed! They were awesome. They were also incredibly loud! Neither Avery nor Emerson cared for the sound – Avery covered her ears with sound reduction headphones and Emerson with her own hands.

Thursday we took Jana out to Sweetwater for her celebratory dinner to commensurate her year being with our family.

Harper’s face!  Haha…she was being so silly….it was hilarious!

Friday after lunch we headed to National Harbor. It was a gorgeous day and while it was a bit touristy, we had a good time eating, relaxing, shopping, and just hanging out.

Late Saturday afternoon we had the Brophys and Nidays over for a low key get together and the girls (and Harrison) had so much fun together. Cannot wait for our vacation in a few weeks with one another!

Sunday it was a trip to Nats Park!  I managed to get five tickets for $36!  Two beers cost more than all our ticket seats!  Granted we were sitting in the nose bleed section, but still a great time…and a beautiful sunny relatively mild day for a ball game.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been, had the Nats won!

Oh just look at that excitement!

This weekend was July 4 weekend.  We went into the weekend have less “things” and commitments to do than normal and it felt so wonderful to be able to truly not rush through every event and enjoy the ordinary moments.  In between the few “things” we did do, we watched the girls put on dance performances in “The Pit”, spent time doing flashcards, played on the swing set, swam in Papa and Grandma’s pool, went for a walk/bike ride in the neighborhood, and watched High School Musical.  While the 4th was actually on Monday, the girls also wore their 4th of July dresses on Saturday.  Justin hadn’t taken his camera out in awhile so he wiped the dust off and attempted to take a few pictures of the girls before we headed to the gym Saturday morning.

Monday, July 4, turned out to be a total wash out, even the neighborhood parade and fireworks were cancelled. While it was a little disappointing not to have the normal 4th of July activities, it was really nice to be able to enjoy and not rush through the simple activities