4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend and we maximized our long weekend in any way we could. We started our celebrating on Wednesday night. Brayden and I went to Walmart to get some groceries and to see the Big Kaboom that the city of Chelsea puts on. It was so nice to go ahead and get my grocery shopping out of the way for the weekend. We also really enjoyed the fireworks and our time just the 2 of us. Not really, Brayden said those fireworks weren't as good as the "Columbinana" ones because Brookie & Nana weren't there. Who cares about ole Mom?!

Thursday was pretty dreary which was just a glimpse of what the rest of the weekend was going to be like. We didn't have anything planned so I told Brayden we could go somewhere fun and he picked the "playstore" aka the toy store. We went over and picked Mom up and then headed up 280. We stopped and ate lunch at Mooyah's, a new burger place in the Colonnade. Then we headed to Toys R Us at the Summit. I don't really know how long we spent in there, but it felt like 4 hours. This is what I heard about 342 times: "Look at this Nana!" "I want this for my birfday Nana!". He ended up picking out a new truck that carries cars. Then we stopped at Pinkberry and got a little fro-yo.



We headed home after that and went and got Tyler. Then we headed to Birmingham again for Thunder on the Mountain. We stopped on the way and got some pizza. Then we went and parked RIGHT UNDER Vulcan. We parked at about 6:30 so we had 2 1/2 hours before the fireworks. We climbed in the back of the car and ate our pizza.

Strangely enough, Brayden did very well with the wait. We got out of the car and walked around and played with his new truck and the Leap Pad. The fireworks were AMAZING! I love our fireworks at Liberty Day, but I have to say Birmingham has them beat by A LOT! They were just a tad too loud, however, when you choose to sit right under them!

Friday we went down to Montgomery to visit with the other Huttons. I love watching Brayden, Emma, and Asher play together. They seriously have so much fun. I love playing with Emma and Asher too. I was the only adult playing doctor and hide and seek with the kids. :) Hey, they'll only be this age for so long and before long they'll want nothing to do with me so I plan on soaking up every bit of time I can. Emma would say "Aunt Beffy" and I loved it. Asher would say "I hold you now" when he wanted me to hold him. Talk about melting my heart!

Saturday morning I lost my nomination for "Best Mom of the Year" when I jokingly threw the remote at Brayden and instead of it hitting him in the leg like I planned, it hit him right in the eyebrow. Blood started pouring and I started freaking. Luckily our former ambulance driver doctored it up and it didn't look too bad the next day. I've decided not to pursue a softball career, though.

Not long after that, Bentley came to stay with us for about 4 hours or so. We all 3 played camping for a little while, which means we sit in Brayden's tent and act like there are monsters outside. Bentley's not used to our monster talk though so she kept looking outside the tent like there really was monster out there. I decided we probably shouldn't play that game with her. She started crying asking for her mom a little later so I decided to try and see if she would take a nap. I tried laying her down in my bed with Brayden and me, but her face turned so red I thought her head would pop off. Then I took her into the living room and started rocking her and singing to her and . . . SHE FELL ASLEEP! I have never been able to put her to sleep so I was pretty proud of myself. Not to mention I got to hold her for a solid hour and a half, which also has never happened. It was a great weekend to be an aunt!

Sunday, we went to church and went home to eat lunch. I tried to get Brayden to lay down and take a nap but clearly he had other ideas. I finally let him get up and we went over to Nana's. He helped me wash my car and did such a good job.

Danson and his dad have been over at my Mom's working on her bathroom lately so they were there and Brooke and Bentley came after Bent took a nap. I tried to take a picture with Brayden and Bentley, but this is how it turned out.

Yep, that's my eye you see back there.

I love the 4th of July. A lot of times I take for granted the fact that I live in the United States. I was watching the news over the weekend about all the Cairo, Egypt stuff and I just thought, what would it be like if there was fighting and shooting going on in the streets of my town? I am so blessed to have been born in this country and I am so thankful to the men and women who have made sure it's not like so many of these other countries. I hope to never forget how great my nation is.

Liberty Day 2013

The weekend before the 4th was Liberty Day in our quaint little town. It was the 28th (I think) year of hosting Liberty Day and we love it! I love it more now with Brayden than I ever have before. Friday night, they closed Main Street and had music and a few rides for the kids. We mainly went down there to listen to Austin Foster.

After he finished, we got up to let the kids do the inflatables. They loved the inflatable slide.

Brooke went down the slide with Bentley a few times, but then she was tired of doing it. She handed Bentley to me like I was going to go down with her. Haha! So I handed her to Papa (my dad) just joking around that he was going to take her down it. HE DID! It was so funny! He loves these kids!

It started raining not long after that so we headed on home.

Saturday morning, we headed down to Main Street to check out the street vendors. Tyler got some of the Finkleas' famous Kettle Corn that he LOVES! Brayden caught a t-shirt that was being shot out of a t-shirt gun and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. Never mind that it's a Jack's shirt and it's a size adult medium. :) We also rode the train together.

We left after that because we were hot. We went with Mom, Brooke & Bent, & Jordan to eat Mexican in Alabaster. I let Bent play with my phone to keep her occupied and this is what my camera roll looked like.

We got back to town just in time to watch the parade. Bentley got to ride in the parade.

That evening, there was music at the football field followed by fireworks. We took a picnic dinner of chicken salad and fruit and had an absolute blast! We got there first and soon after Brooke and Danson came, along with Jared, Tracey, and Aubrey. Danson's sisters came too so we had a great group!

Poor Danson's chair broke not long after this and he hit the ground! It was so funny!

The fireworks were great and Brayden loved them. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend!