Happy 4th of July!!!

Traditions...

4th of July has always been a holiday I look forward to and it probably all comes from family get-togethers on the 4th for as long as I can remember!!!  I remember as a little girl always going to the North Liberty parade, then hanging out with family, eating lots of food all day long, then watching the fireworks either at Potato Creek State Park or North Liberty Elementary. It was always super hot, but we always seemed to have so much fun!

This year started off as a bummer, but got better. First of all, we stayed in Terre Haute (which isn't the first time), but also our main group of friends that we would have over for a cookout, most (not all) were out of town or had other plans (...traditions!). I had heard about a parade to attend in Linton, IN...almost an hour away and mentioned it to Bobby, but he had no interest so we didn't go (but we will go next time if I have anything to do with it because the 4th just isn't the 4th to me without a parade!). I was bummed and he knew it, so we made the trip to Linton in the afternoon, hoping to take advantage of their festival (little did we know the rides didn't start until 6p). On the way, when we were almost there, we passed Stoll's Country Inn buffet which is this amazing Amish food buffet restaurant that I have eaten at closer to Evansville, but had no clue there was one even closer to Terre Haute!!!  We decided to stop (good thing too because none of the food places were open at the festival either) and it was so yummy!  That was worth the trip to Linton in itself!  Since none of the rides were running, luckily they have a great city park with tons of different playground equipment for the girls. I think they played for 1.5-2 hours!

Afterwards, Bobby and Natalie headed to the Cosby's apartment complex to swim while I stayed back with Aubrey who was still napping. After pool time, everyone gathered at our place for an impromptu cookout before heading to Fairbanks Park for fireworks. They put on a great show!  Luckily Natalie thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks since prior to leaving our house if she heard a firework outside, she came running to the door sobbing because she was scared. I'm not sure if it was because of a group setting or not, but the noise did not bother her at all and no ear plugs were needed!  Aubrey liked them too and was not scared, but she did not want to sit still and it was obviously time for her to go to sleep, but both girls stayed awake through the entire fireworks show!  We enjoyed hanging out with the Cosby's tonight, making memories.

No pictures of our family of 4 since Bobby was working part of the time since he was on-call and by the time we could have taken a picture, the lighting wouldn't have been great.

Aubrey spotted this little boy right away...went right up to him and his mom and didn't say much or interact a ton, but I think she definitely had a crush on him...it was SO cute to watch. They are only a couple months apart in age.