Happy 4th!

Holidays are always so much fun. As the girls get older they seem to be more enjoyable, but never what I envisioned them. Mark teases me that I'm like Clark Griswald when it comes to holidays & my expectations are too high. I would have to agree with him & can laugh about that. When things don't go as planned, I laugh and say "just call me Sparky" (if you haven't seen Christmas Vacation that may not make any sense). We thought about getting sparklers for the girls, & then thought that might not be the best idea. We did decide to venture out & head up to the mountains to a place called Cascade Lake. We were going to meet up with some friends there. We heard they were supposed to have a good firework show right on the lake. We timed things perfectly so the girls would take really late naps. The fireworks don't start until after 10:15 here. We drove though Old McDonalds for dinner & headed up the mountain. About 45 minutes into the drive (which was beautiful & along a river), traffic came to a dead stop. We were on a two lane highway. We could see emergency vehicle lights up ahead. We figured we'd wait for a few minutes to see if they'd move us through. After about 15 minutes a life flight helicopter came down to the scene up ahead. For sure once it left, we'd be moving again. After an hour of waiting (with a crying baby who doesn't like the car seat, and a bored 2 & 4 year old) we decided we'd better turn around. We wouldn't make it in time to see the fireworks & it didn't look like the accident would clear up anytime soon. We headed back to Boise & made it in time to park in an empty lot nearby Ann Morrison Park. The girls were being cute & had fun sitting in the camping chairs. They loved their headbands ($1 bins at Target). Paige loved the fireworks. Her favorite were the purple & yellow ones (go Lakers! Mark has Paige convinced that Kobe is our cousin :0)
Claire wasn't too thrilled with the fireworks. She CLUNG to Mark the entire time & would occasionally look up. We told her the fireworks looked like pixie dust (they're way into Peter Pan right now). She would look for a minute, but then turn back towards Mark. If you ask her about the fireworks she'll say "fireworks go Boom, Boom" as she holds her hand up in fists. Sometime she'll say "fireworks not scare you". She is talking so much & its so fun to hear her sweet little voice.
The 4th made me homesick for my sister. Last year we went swimming at their house, had a bbq & watched fireworks together. Time for new traditions here, but it still made me miss her. I had all the intentions of making a traditional 4th flag cake, but the day went by too quickly. Instead I opted for vanilla ice cream with strawberries & blue berries. Still red, white & blue & delicious but just not the same. It's okay Sparky, there's always next year :0)
PS- Sorry the pictures are not in order or captioned. You'll just have to read through everything for them to make sense.
I did have the girls in white t-shirts, jeans & matching bows. Of course I didn't get them all together at the same time & I didn't even get one of Paige. I'm trying... at least I got two out of three???? The picture of Claire pre-bow is her "crazy Louis" hair. If you've ever seen Meet the Robinsons, Louis has crazy blond spikey hair. We put conditioner in Claire's hair to stand it up & then she loves to see it in the mirror. Oh, the little things that make us smile.....