a memorable 4th!

Seriously? Raining on the Fourth of July?! This will be one to remember.
I am NOT complaining, I was afraid I'd be M.I.S.E.R.A.B.L.E in the heat, so this was the year for it to happen.

We had a fun day, but it certainly wasn't like any other July 4th! We went to the pool around 11 for a couple hours; of course Cade didn't notice or care the water was COLD or that it sprinkled off-and-on while we were there. We did a double-take when the tornado siren testing at Saturday noon began. :) We grilled hot dogs for lunch, then Cade & I napped to get ready for the late night.

I know you make fun of me & my Edmond LibertyFest fascination, but that's where I wanted to go for some kid-friendly fun...like the Garber community festivities that looked so fun! Chad & I finally agreed on the plan to go for a bit & have dinner & watch some early fireworks, then spend the rest of the evening at our neighbor's, where I wasn't sure we could see fireworks enough for Cade to care.

We arrived on UCO campus for LibertyFest around 6 & had some free watermelon. Chad, being a better parent than I, even took Cade to the porta-potties to keep up with our potty-training success; if it were me, I'd let him go in the pull-up instead of stepping foot in one of those. *LOL what's wrong with me?* Next, Cade got a fake tattoo & backed out after standing in line for two of the giant inflatable slides. *Apparently he got Chad's bad influence of the tattoo & my bad influence of fear of big, scary rides. LOL* Of course he said he wanted to try the swings ride *I can't watch!* with the gi-normous line. *ugh* While they waited, I decided to get our Earl's Rib Palace chopped BBQ beef sandwiches & waters. *Those clouds over there don't look good, I wonder which way they are moving, & I wonder if THAT is what a wall cloud looks like?* Getting dinner, two workers also in line said storms in El Reno heading NE. *lovely* As I head back to the family, the crowd begins to scramble. Everything was being shut-down because of the lightning. It was almost a mass panic mode because you heard people saying "tornado!" & pushing to get out the gate from the area where they had rides. I put the food in my giant bag *glad now that I lugged it around*, Chad put Cade (crying to ride the swings like any 2-year-old being tortured :) that way would do) on his shoulders, and we headed back to our car. We parked CLEAR across the UCO campus where we thought we had a good spot for the fireworks show. The picture I took on my iPhone as we were scrambling isn't clear, but you can sorta make-out the scary-looking sky. Chad jogged some of the way, I just huffed & puffed walking as fast as I could. *Speaking of not having pictures of something funny, Bengi.* There weren't any campus buildings open, and I'm sure if it were a real storm in the area, our car wasn't the safest place to be. I just knew our time at the LibertyFest was over for the night & wanted to get to our car. It was about 7:30, and we made it right before it started raining. *lucky* We ate our dinner while we decided if we should wait for fireworks here. *2 hours entertaining Cade inside this car, I don't think so.* So, we just headed over to the neighbors. Our neighborhood isn't a front-row seat to fireworks, but we could see a lot of different ones really well. Cade enjoyed the fireworks, which I had my heart set on him seeing them, so I was relieved. He did great, & we stayed until 10:30! There was another 3-year-old, but she wasn't too great at playing catch. *girls!* He also didn't understand why they didn't have toys upstairs, and I was in awe of all their fancy decorations, for example a small table in the bathroom with two tall candles & a decorative plate. *oh, yeah, their girls are 15 & 12...I guess with 2 boys, it'll be 18 years before I have break-ables in my home again...and it looks like any babysitting they do will have to be at our house! LOL* It all worked out, and like I said, made for a memorable Independence Day. :)

I'm sure it was gorgeous & sunny at Dad's house for the Fireworks Extravaganza that we all bailed on this year. :( Looks like everyone had a great day, but it just isn't as fun as getting together with you all!