4th of July

Annalise and I flew back from California on a Friday night and got home around 2:00am Saturday. We were up bright and early later that morning to drive out to Nehalem to enjoy the fourth of July weekend with the Deweys at their coast house.

Annalise had a great time. There was lots to do. After all, there were plenty of babies to play ball with,

scientific experiments involving Mentos and Diet Coke,

and even some fun water-balloon-launching contests.

There were older men to woo,

and cuddle times with Mommy

(complete with gooey smooches.)

There was a tremendously fun Independence Day parade,

where candy and toys were thrown and Annalise snagged a hot pink bead necklace. The very loud parade music inspired her (inside her Ergo) to swing her beads, sing along very loudly (one note) and shake her groove thing like nobody's business.

You can see by the look on her face she is very serious about this dancing and singing business.

She rocked out so hard that she promptly fell asleep. Still clutching her beads.

The loudness she had enjoyed dancing to so much when she was awake was not as welcome after she passed out. Every time a loud noise happened, this is what her eyebrows did in her sleep:

The babies weren't allowed outside by themselves like the big kids, so much of their time was spent like this:

We watched the fireworks (Annalise's first!) from the beach, where though it was July, the temperature (in my estimation) was approximately negative 20, and in Dave's, about 40. Whichever one of us you ask, it was cold. Dave and Annalise both caught colds from being out in it so long but we had a fun set-up with a mini tent for the babies to play in,

and a camp fire with the largest hunk of firewood anyone's ever rolled down a beach.

The Great Baby Swap occurred just before this picture was snapped. Nicole is taking the picture, Megan is holding Nicole's baby, I am holding Megan's baby, and Dave is holding ours.

Happy Independence Day to all!