Crazy 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July morning. We went to church and had a really nice time and there was such a nice spirit there. When we got home from church I had everything packed so we could go meet Jason's sister at Balboa so we could hang out and watch the fireworks on the beach. We were planning on going to a BBQ that was a 1 hour walk from where we were staying, watching the fireworks, and then spending the night and hanging out in Newport/Balboa the next day. We packed the car and headed out. Once we got there we got stuck in a little bit of traffic trying to get to the hotel and then we got lost trying to get to the hotel. All of this put us way behind schedule because we were going to meet everyone at the BBQ at 4 and it was already past that time. Not to mention we still had to park the car and there was literally no parking anywhere. (We ended up paying $25 to park in a lot.) It was so late that we knew by the time we walked over to the BBQ we would just have to head back to the hotel to put the kids to bed. So we stayed where we were and decided to just get food by the hotel. The problem with the whole plan is that I had no idea it was like Spring Break in that area on the 4th. There were half naked, drunk, cussing people everywhere and I was not very happy with it. I thought going to a restaurant would help get away from all that and then we could just go back to the hotel and get the kids asleep. However once we got seated at BJ's Pizza place there were cussing people all around ( nothing bothers me more than people cussing when there are kids around.) We ended up having a semi nice dinner after most of the people cleared out, plus Jason got us a pazookie (a cookie pizza with ice cream on top) which I had never had and that put me in a much better mood. We went back to the hotel and it was already 8 PM. We got the kids in there Jammies and tried to get Brooke settled down for bed. Brooke won't go to sleep with people around and the room was so small that we decided to put her to bed in the room that Jason's sister was staying in just until they came back from the BBQ, however Brooke climbed out of the crib when we thought she was asleep and then fell really hard to the ground. I knew the only way to get her to sleep that night would be to let her crash because of being so tired. We let her stay up and watch TV with us, and then when I thought I heard fireworks, we headed outside to go watch them from the balcony of the hotel that was right on the beach. We couldn't see anything so I asked someone when the fireworks would be starting. They said that there was only one place in the area that we could see fireworks, and we were not close to it. What?? That's why we went to the beach so we could see the fireworks. I am now pretty mad at the whole situation and we go back into the hotel room. After another hour of trying fruitlessly to get Brooke to sleep, I told Jason we would get a lot more sleep that night if we went home. It was so loud in the hotel room, and both the kids are light sleepers so I knew Brooke would be waking up anytime there was noise. So we packed everything up, and left at 10:30 PM. The traffic heading back was so bad that instead of getting home in 45 minutes it took us 2.5 hours. That concludes that worst but probably the most memorable 4th of July . I felt like the whole trip was just a lot of moving around with no actual activity manifested.

On a happy note. Right before church I was able to snap a few shots of Brooke and Preston in their 4th of July garb. So cute!! The one of Preston with that funny smirk cracks me up!!