Fourth of July

I realize this is ridiculously late for posting, but I really just wanted to add the photos. We spent the 4th with Cody, Jon, Aidan, Grady, and the baby - now officially known as Annaliese. We drove down to Tacoma in the afternoon to watch the air show from Helen's deck, and then we all came back up here for the fireworks. After a brief crisis (who knew you couldn't buy sparklers anymore?!), resolved by a quick drive up north, we celebrated with some over-sized explosives, and then headed downtown to watch the fireworks. This year we passed on Gasworks and ended up under the Aurora Bridge. It turned out to be a *great* spot - we could see everything really well, but it wasn't quite as loud, and nowhere near as crowded. Plus we were home in no time.

(When they were all sold out of sparklers, I asked the woman at the reservation stand for something "good for small kids" - umm, apparently we have a very different idea of what that means... The next shot is our reactions to that spinning disc shooting straight up in the air with a god awful screech... Needless to say, we did NOT use all four of them as planned...)

Since they were out of regular sparklers, the boys got to use crazy 3 foot ones instead... Next year we will stock up ahead of time. Or at least before we cross back into King County.

Everyone stayed overnight, and the next day we took them to the zoo. The boys had a great time, and it was really fun to watch Josh & Aidan. They really are so alike... At one point, they were both dancing down the sidewalk in front of us, holding hands, and looking like marionettes from the wizard of oz... I wish we'd been able to get a picture! At the end of the day, both boys were heartbroken to say goodbye. We really need to see them at least once a month...