Happy 4th of July!!

Parades, Fireworks and Bar-B-Que's oh my . . . yup, that's our 4th of July!

This holiday is very special to us! A few years ago, four to be exact, Jeff and I spent the 4th of July together. My family had a party and invited his family. The two of us weren't dating, in fact you could even say we weren't interested in each other at the time, but everything changed that day. By the end of the party you could tell that there were more than one set of fireworks going on. ha ha ha :-) (sooo cheesy!!)

Well now, four years, a wedding and a baby later, here we are! We started the day off by going to the parade in downtown Naples. We met up with Andy, Victoria, their dog Daisy, and my Mom. It was H.O.T. hot . . . seriously hot and it was only 10 in the morning!

We sported our red, white and blue and waved the flag at all the people walking by!

Grandma Lois and a very hot little boy!

He was sitting there loving the parade, everyone waving at him, all smiles . . . .

Until . . . the military guys came by and gave a gun salute thing. Scared the crap out of all of us and that was the downfall. We were all sweaty, hot, and Johnathan was crying . . . so we packed up with high hopes of getting to the beach and enjoying the sand and surf . . . well, that didn't work out either and while I was a bit upset, my knight in shining armor came to the rescue . . . Jeff saw how disappointed I was and set up our "at home water park" and all was good! We splashed and enjoyed the hot day with a cold beer and some good tunes on.

Later in the day Johnathan wanted to show off all his skills . . . it was the funniest thing, we were just watching TV and playing and the next thing I know, Johnathan is putting on a one man show . . .

Then came a surge of energy out of our little guy . . . gotta love this look!

Here is his version of "Peek-a-boo" he doesn't get that his hands should go over his eyes, but he loves playing all the time . . .

Jeff made a yummy barbeque dinner and as it started to get dark we set-up seats in our backyard to get ready for our own firework show. As a child I HATED fireworks, they terrified me, I was afraid of the sound and I seriously thought everything would catch on fire from the little embers that floated through the air, but I was hopeful that the noise and sparkles wouldn't scare Johnathan. I was so hopeful that I sat outside with Johnathan far away from where Jeff was lighting the fireworks and clapped my hands and told Johnathan "ohhh this is going to be so much fun, say YAY for fireworks!!" Well the first one went off and Johnathan screamed and looked as terrified as I remember being and it was all over. Poor guy! We tried with one more a "quiet" one with lots of different colors, but nope our little boy was not a fan. So back inside we went, Johnathan got a bottle and called it a night!

After Johnathan was tucked in and dreaming of quiet, cool days, Jeff and I lit the rest of the fireworks. What a great day! :-)