Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy Birthday, America!

The first ever fireworks our family has done together.  I guess we normally watch the Stadium of Fire Fireworks or mooch off someone else.  This year our neighborhood did a pretty good job of replicating the Stadium of Fire, and here is our contribution--we were pretty excited!
The 4th of July sort of caught us off guard this year.  I got home from NYC late Saturday night and Monday was the 4th!  We visited with family at Grandpa and Grandma Clarke's Sunday night, so that was a lot of fun and felt holiday-ish.  Then the kids hatched a grand plan to see if they could have a cousin sleep-over and Grandma's...it worked!  Grandma and Grandpa are getting soft!  They were so nice to let all those teenagers sleep over!  (Calvin and Lindsay also got to sleep over with Jada and Reese, who were already sleeping over because they were here on their family vacation from Arkansas.) They all got to go to the Freedom Festival Balloon Launch the next morning.  Fun!
Cute cousin foot shot!
The main attraction was the Darth Vader Balloon complete with Storm Troopers and that scary dude!
Love the balloon launch on the 4th! 
Dum, dum, dum, dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum...can't you just hear the music? 
And then the wind came up...
...and all the balloons came down.

We looked and looked for something 4th of July-ish to do together that afternoon, then we found a car show at the mall and that was really fun.
Lauren's dream car!  This was her favorite.
Cal thought this one was awesome!
Then we went home and had a true 4th of July Dinner--Hot Dogs, Chips, Root Beer!  And we didn't forget the licorice and cracker jacks for the fireworks.  It turned out to be a great impromptu 4th of July.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Saying good-bye

Our trip was almost over, but first we had to see the Mall at Short Hills, a short drive from Ashli's house.  This mall was amazing!  I've never seen soo many high-end stores!  Fun to window shop!
Can I get something at Tiffany's?  We tried on a couple of gorgeous rings and had to do a couple extra gulps when we saw the price tag--$58,000 and $31,000.  Hard to imagine spending that much money on anything I can't live in or drive.
Ash looking tres smashing in a hat at Anthropologie--love that store!
Thanks for a showing us a great time, guys!  We love you!
So sad to say good-bye, but great to come home to my family!  Thanks for letting me go, guys!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Our Chillin' Day at the Jersey Shore

On our way out to the beach.  Ok, sort of blurry, but that was because I was trying to protect the phone through a ziplock bag.  Effective in protection, not so much for a clear shot, duh...
Can you see the Manhattan Skyline in the horizon?
Here's a zoomed in pic--cool to be on the beach but see the city, huh? 
Ethan and Anna body surfing--or were they looking for crabs?  We had a couple big old, dead crabs wash in a few times on us and totally freak us out!
Grandma and Kate.  Grandma was a good sport.  I think she got soaked a couple of times--and that water was COLD!
Baby Jane.  She wanted to be by the water! 
There's a great one of Kate.  She spent a lot of time collecting shells and sand for her castle. 
A pretty cool place! I never pictured the Jersey Shore to be so nice.