Friday:
We had planned on spending the morning at the river, but as we were getting ready to leave, a quick check of the weather deemed it a little too chilly to be around any water. Despite some initial disappointment, we rallied quickly and decided as an alternative to take in a local attraction about an hour away from our house: Mastodon State Park. Sounds interesting, right? Who doesn't want to learn about Mastodons! Iris was totally pumped. And just to throw out some quick trivia: did you know that Woolly Mammoths and Mastodons are completely different? Who knew?
We had planned on spending the morning at the river, but as we were getting ready to leave, a quick check of the weather deemed it a little too chilly to be around any water. Despite some initial disappointment, we rallied quickly and decided as an alternative to take in a local attraction about an hour away from our house: Mastodon State Park. Sounds interesting, right? Who doesn't want to learn about Mastodons! Iris was totally pumped. And just to throw out some quick trivia: did you know that Woolly Mammoths and Mastodons are completely different? Who knew?
Lydia was not quite as thrilled as the rest of the family about seeing the Mastodons, as you can tell by her grumpy demeanor in the first picture and her complete absence in the second. I believe her exact words were: "Mastodons are for punks!" I think she might have been holding a grudge about the change of plans...
Our little nature girls. This was on the way to see the bone beds where you can actually view the dig site. How cool is that?
This is a view of one of the flights of steps leading down to the bone beds. We found it hilarious that the sign said that there would be only "three flights of steps." We are pretty sure that must have been a typo as there were actually about ten flights. The girls did fine going down by themselves, but Todd and I got quite the workout carrying them back up!
The end of a busy morning. Don't you love the look of black and white photographs?
Later that afternoon, we headed down to O'Fallon's Heritage Freedom Fest to participate with our small group in helping out in the Kids Area. The highlight of this area for Iris was the series of huge inflatables:
She spent literally a solid hour straight jumping around in this huge pirate ship! I was surprised, actually, that she was even interested considering the amount of crazy kiddos that were running all over these things. She's getting brave in her old age! Lydia was completely devastated, though, because she was too little to participate. Poor girlie!
Saturday:
We awoke to pouring rain and were worried that it really WAS going to rain on our parade! We've been attending the 4th of July parade down in Old Town St. Charles since the first summer we lived here. It's become one of our most treasured family traditions. Iris looks forward to it all year - little 4th of July lover that she is.
We decided to head down anyways, despite the fact that it was still raining when we left, just in case the parade was still being held. We would have been devastated to miss it considering this is our last summer here. To our great happiness, the parade was still on! And God, in all his infinite wisdom and power, even caused there to be a lull between the downpours just as the parade was beginning. The girls had a complete blast!
Saturday:
We awoke to pouring rain and were worried that it really WAS going to rain on our parade! We've been attending the 4th of July parade down in Old Town St. Charles since the first summer we lived here. It's become one of our most treasured family traditions. Iris looks forward to it all year - little 4th of July lover that she is.
We decided to head down anyways, despite the fact that it was still raining when we left, just in case the parade was still being held. We would have been devastated to miss it considering this is our last summer here. To our great happiness, the parade was still on! And God, in all his infinite wisdom and power, even caused there to be a lull between the downpours just as the parade was beginning. The girls had a complete blast!
Iris: Oooo, yeah! That's good, Lydia!
Because of the rain, not a lot of people turned out for the parade - which meant more candy for us!
Later on, We hung out with some of our fantastic neighbors for supper and fireworks. This was the first year that we actually bought fireworks of our own, so we were pretty excited for the evening to arrive!
Later on, We hung out with some of our fantastic neighbors for supper and fireworks. This was the first year that we actually bought fireworks of our own, so we were pretty excited for the evening to arrive!
Iris was not a huge fan of the smoke balls - thank goodness for blankie-blankie to help fend off the smell!
Even Lydia got in on some firework action lighting sparklers with daddy.
One of the perks of our neighborhood is that we never have to go farther than our cul-de-sac to see spectacular fireworks displays. A couple of the neighborhoods behind and around us shoot off amazing extravaganzas for hours on the 4th of July. This year they had to start before it got dark because another storm front was moving in. Iris was in heaven!
Our own meager fireworks display. Towards the end of the night, the boys set all the leftover fireworks in the street and lit them up. Nice!
So I hope you enjoyed our little weekend re-cap. The rain tried it's hardest on Saturday to put a damper on our fun, but we had good times anyways. I like the way Iris summed things up: "Mommy, this is my best day ever!"
So I hope you enjoyed our little weekend re-cap. The rain tried it's hardest on Saturday to put a damper on our fun, but we had good times anyways. I like the way Iris summed things up: "Mommy, this is my best day ever!"
Happy Fourth of July!
4 comments:
It looks like it wasn't just the best DAY ever, but the best WEEKEND ever! I love how you are all having so much fun even with the rain changing plans ;) Are you recovering today? I'm going to try and get our camping pictures up, but it might be much later today
What a fun way to spend the holiday! Lydia's hair is adorable! I love it!
Thanks for voting! Tune it tomorrow for the news...
Hey, what kind of double stroller did you buy? I couldn't remember if it's the Chicco or Combi. I'm getting ready to invest, but feel more comfortable going with something that I know is a sure thing!
What a fun 4th of July weekend!
I love the sparkle in Iris' eyes
watching the fireworks. She is just
soaking it all in. Her ponytails
are so cute! Love all the pictures
of the girls.
You guys really know how to have fun!!! Looks like you had a great time. And the pictures are great!
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