July 4, 2009

We spent this year's Independence Day having good food with some great friends and had such a blast! Earlier in the day I was surprised with an invite to do some shopping with my best friend and her mom and aunt. So I met up with them at the mall and after helping her pick out some maternity clothes they invited me to join them for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I really enjoyed some time with Gabrielle without children. I think I could count how many times we've done on one hand and still have fingers left over! After lunch I came home and we all got ready to head over to our friends Kevin and Melinda Ridgeway's for a BBQ with our small group friends. We had such a good time with our group of friends, and the kids had a blast all running around together and of course spending time in the pool.

There was so much food and it was all so good. Melinda makes the best cookies, and Lana brought a killer chocolate pudding desert. By the end of the evening we were all stuffed!

After we were able to pry all of the children out of the pool, we all loaded up and the whole group headed over to a park in our friends Dave and Sonja's neighborhood to watch the fireworks that are shot off from Tumbleweed Park. It was perfect. A great fireworks display with none of the hassle of the crowds. And to top it all off, it was totally free! Doesn't get better than that!

The boys both just loved the fireworks. I don't think Ben even blinked for the first 10 minutes of the show! They were both shouting out their "Whoas!" and "Wows!" and "Score!" (whatever that means!). After a while Ben got tired and took a little rest on Daddy's lap.

When the fireworks were over we all came home and crashed out. We were so exhausted! But it was such a fun day. Thank you Ridgeways for opening your home to us. We had a great time!