July 4th

We discovered last year that there's no need to travel out of our community on the 4th of July to find fun festive activities. We had a relaxing morning at home, if I'm remembering correctly Justin I didn't get out of bed till after 9:30am. We were ready just in time to head to our community celebration. Each year the community rents dozens of inflatable rides and toys for the residents to enjoy. 

I assumed Katie would want to join her siblings and climb through all the obstacles.  I was wrong.  She only went in a few feet, then when faced with squeezing herself through this, she decided she was done.

Jason and Abigail running in the hamster balls

I was busy taking pictures of Abigail, Carly, and Jason who were all in a ball at the same time that I didn’t even notice that Justin took a turn as well.  I only turned around in time to see him getting out.  It would have been fun to see such a big guy running around in the middle of that little ball.

All aboard the choo-choo train!

Jason’s pony was quite skittish – we’re lucky no one was injured in our walk around the parking lot.

Near the end of the event we tried to see if Katie would be interested in going inside the Seseme Street inflatable.  Success!  

Jason went on the slide over, and over, and over…

There is also plenty of food including snow cones, hot dogs, pizza, drinks, freshly made doughnuts, and popcorn.

I didn’t realize until looking through these pictures on my computer that I stood there and took a picture of Katie picking up popcorn off the dirty street 

And eating it

This girl LOVES water bottles these days and much prefers them over sippy cups.  She insists on holding the lid though the entire time.

Some real estate company was making fresh donuts for anyone willing to wait in a short line.  They made them right in front of you and gave you half a dozen hot, yummy donuts.  Justin and I both decided we could be very happy with our very own donut machine at home.

This moment – Katie running to meet up with Jason at the slides – was one of those “awe” moments for me.  A perfect moment of pure. carefree happiness.  I so love those moments in life.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and the hours flew by.

We had just enough time at home to recuperate before heading to our smaller neighborhood party that afternoon. In the past year our neighborhood hasn't grown much but things are really starting to pick up. Some families in the neighborhood decided to put together a block party on the 4th. Since we've been isolated up on our hill since we moved here we haven't had very many opportunities to get to know some of the families in the neighborhood. This was our chance.  Neither Justin nor I are very social or comfortable hanging out with people we don't know, but we did our best and it was fun to visit with some of the great families that live nearby. I think about 25 family showed up for the BBQ. There was lots of food and even a bouncy house for the kids to play in (which all the kids enjoyed, including Miss Katie).

Once it got dark enough we all reconvened at the empty lots up near our house for a grand firework show. I couldn't believe the amount of fireworks the people in the neighborhood bought for this event. These are the type of fireworks I grew up watching at city sponsored events, it amazes me that here in Snoqualmie these huge fireworks displays are happening on every street. 

While we were waiting for it to get dark enough for the big fireworks people let off some of the more tame fireworks. Katie was really into it and enjoyed watching the fountains, but once the big fireworks started she very quietly put the blanket over her head and laid there, hidden and silent until the show was over. I felt bad for her but I also thought it was absolutely adorable.