Sky Valley 4th

Last year, we started what I hope to be a tradition of spending the 4th of July in Sky Valley at my in-law's place. I love it! Its a much quieter way to spend the 4th. I do miss seeing fireworks with my family, as was our previous tradition, but i in NO way miss all the traffic to get to the fireworks and back home.

 This year, Sky Valley (the association) decided to do the fireworks on the 3rd instead of the 4th. Several cities actually did that this year. I'm not sure why? Maybe because people have to go back to work on the 5th? Anyways, that meant that i needed to try to move my last patient of the day (which, thankfully, he was very accommodating!) so we could head on out a little after 4pm. We got to the house around 6:30, enjoyed a nice dinner and let the kids play for a bit while we unpacked. During this play time, Mack started TAKING STEPS!!! He was standing at the (massive) fireplace and I wondered if i could get him to try to take a couple of steps towards me (previously he had only taken one step at a time, max) for my in-laws to see. Well, low and behold, he took 3 steps! And LAUGHED the whole time! It was precious!!! When he got to me and I picked him up, he screamed (his not so nice way of letting me know he's unhappy :-( ) so i put him back down and he continued to take steps, fall, laugh, get back up, take more steps, fall, laugh, etc...

He was having a BLAST!! We were all so proud!

I went ahead and got Mack in bed around 7:30. Rhyan was already asking every 5 minutes "we need to go see the fireworks!". They didnt start till about 9:00. It was a long 1.5 hours. lol. The thing is, the fireworks are just down in the valley... walking distance. We do drive, but you dont have to. Point being, theres really no reason to get down there way early!

I volunteered to stay back with Mack (everyone actually volunteered, but i INSISTED... i was worn OUT from packing so late the night before and working all day) and Ronni, Andy and Jeff headed down with Rhyan. 

The fireworks lasted all of about 10 minutes. Which was great. Because Rhyan is 3 and normally goes to bed at 8pm ;-) She loved them and talked about them for days!!!

The next morning, Jeff came in the room at around 7am and said that Jason and Liz (his brother and wife) had called and Liz's WATER BROKE!!! She was due with baby Avery July 15th so we were all a little surprised that she was making her debut early! But we were  THRILLED and EXCITED!!! Jeff said he'd never seen me get out of bed so fast! haha!!! But Liz was only dialated to a one at 6am, so we knew we had a bit of time, so we decided to play it by ear and just stick around and enjoy the day until we got a call saying progress was being made! (sky valley is less than 2 hours from home)

 Jeff went on a bike ride in the morning and Rhyan and I met him down at the main street for the Independence Day Parade!! Yall, it was almost laughable :-) It was all volunteer and was just so cute! It was very  low key. We took a blanket and some snacks and just walked down to a little shady spot and enjoyed the show! It was definitely our kind of parade. :-) Not crowded. Not Hot. Nice!

HILARIOUS!!

The most exciting thing for Rhyan was the dogs and the candy :-) Girl LOVES her some candy!!!

He's so handsome :-)

We loved the "volunteer" dog's in the parade!

On the way back to the house, Rhyan spotted some FROGS! That girl loves frogs. (eww)

Then, we headed on back to the house for some redneck pool fun!

 

 And of course I had to get a pic of Mack doing what he does best: screaming. 

The. Most. Demanding. Baby. Ever. :-)

Good thing he's scrumptious!

Naps followed and  then we headed HOME to wait to meet baby AVERY!!!!

That deserves a post of its own :-)