Our 4th of July Weekend Update

Well, I already posted our 4th of July Weekend pictures, but I am sure everyone wants to know how our weekend went. On Saturday morning we went to the parade that started at 11. Jon was already there because he judges certain entries and has to help official the parade. So, Hayden and I packed our cooler parked a mile away, and hiked to Dairy Queen to enjoy the parade (same spot as last year). Only problem was I forgot they remodeled the Dairy Queen aka no more shade. We then found Jon and set up camp over by where he was patrolling the parade.

The parade this year was quite long: 2 hours. There were parts Hayden loved: motorcycles, horses, helicopter, and of course the loud cannon, and there were parts that Hayden wasn't too fond of: the loud cars and the sirens from the firetrucks and police cars. I am not sure why they bothered him so much. We were going to have a picnic after the parade but our little man was pretty tired which means he was starting to get fussy. He went down for a 3 hour nap! We couldn't believe it.

After he got up from his nap we went to the park to swing ("weeee" as Hayden calls it). You wouldn't believe it until you look at the pictures, but the kid actually hangs on and you can push him pretty high. The higher the better according to him. After the park we went to the festival, but only lasted maybe 20 minutes. He isn't quite old enough for the bouncy floats they had there, and was upset when Jon and I were playing the bean bag game because even though he had his own bean bags we weren't paying enough attention to him.

At dinner, Hayden practically ate out the restaurant. Well not literally, but close enough. He ate off Jon and my plates from the salad bar and also his dinner. Two mini grilled cheese sandwiches and apples. We didn't think he could put anything else in there. Then after he was done it all came out. His face turned red and he grunted.... Jon asked if he was pooping and Hayden actually replied "yeh" and nodded his head. It was pretty funny. At dinner Hayden learned how to do a big smile and how to bat his eye lashes (all I am thinking is great now he really knows how to work me over).

Hayden went to bed early as usual but we woke him up for the fireworks ("boom booms"). He loved them! We sat on top of our hill and watched them and about 30 yards away a house was setting off the great big ones and he just watched in awe. Only problem was they kept setting them off until 1 in the morning and Hayden was wide awake every 20-30 minutes wanting to go watch.

Sunday we went to our friends house for a BBQ. Hayden had a blast. The girls have this bright pink guitar that plays different songs (What a girl wants, Survivor, etc). Anyway Hayden loved it, he wouldn't let it out of his sight nor reach. Jon was thinking great my son loves hot pink and girly music! It was pretty funny to watch his reaction. Hayden had such a great time, the kid didn't stop running until we got in the car to go home. At the end of the night the two girls were exhausted from playing with him, Jon and I just had to giggle because they are 9 and 12, too young to be worn out in 3 hours of play time.

Anyway, now that I have blabbed on and on I guess that comes to the end of our weekend. This week the only thing that is new with Hayden are his new words. He can say cookie... although you can't tell it is cookie, and he is starting to use Thank You. We are also working on Lisa and Hailee since we will be seeing you two very soon! Well I hope everyone has a good weekend and miss you all very much!

Happy 4th of July!

I know it is no quite the 4th yet, but I figured we could tell everyone Happy 4th of July early. We have been keeping pretty busy since our last post. My mom (Grandma Melissa) came down last week and Hayden went to his very first movie. During the summer Regal is putting on a Family Film Festival, and Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10 there are free movies. Well we thought we would give it a try, since the kid can't stay still to save his life, and that way we would have spent 6 bucks on a movie we wouldn't sit through. Well he lasted 30 mins, and that is only because we had popcorn (His new favorite treat)! I don't have any pictures because they are on Grandma's camera, but they were super cute. He was double fisting.

Last Saturday we went to the coast. There were to festivals going on: The Pirates Festival and the Sandcastle and Wood Sculpting Festival. It was hard to pick which one to go to since we went to both last year, but we ended up going to the Sandcastle one because there was beach access where Hayden could run around. The wood carvings weren't as good as last year, but there was a super cool car made out of sand that you could stand in and get your picture taken in (pictures are on Flickr). When we got to the beach, there were huge kites being flown. Hayden thought they were balloons and kept calling them "boons." Once we got onto the sand we took Hayden's sandals off so he could run and play. Wow did he not want to be put down. At first he hated the sand and didn't want anything to do with it. However, once we got down by the water and showed him how to splash and stomp on the water, that was enough to convince him the sand was okay.

Hayden got soaked! I was smart this year and brought an extra pair of clothes, blanket, a wet wash cloth, and plastic bags. But, apparently I wasn't smart enough to bring them to the beach (I left them in the car), so Hayden ended up wrapped in my coat while we finished looking at the sandcastles. Amazingly enough the semi-pro sandcastles were ten times better than the pros. All in all we had a great time. Hayden is starting to talk up a storm, in words: flower (bower), chocolate (kacolat - I think that is how he says it), swing (wee), and a if you ask him to say a some words he can mimic you a little.

Anyway, this weekend we plan on going to the parade tomorrow. Hayden I am sure will like all of the sirens this year. Then tomorrow night we plan on going to the festival that Tumwater is putting on. Hopefully this year Hayden can play in the big blow up balloons they will have. We aren't going to keep Hayden up for the fireworks, because the kid has to have his sleep. We are probably going to do what we did last year: grab him from his crib, drive to the top of our hill and watch from the car. So Hayden may or may not get to watch them this year!