4th of July

Yesterday was the 4th of July and it is probably my favorite holiday. I'll say the same thing about Christmas, but it is only because they are on opposite ends of the year and I change "favorites" on a weekly basis.

Being a new mommy and wanting to celebrate my favorite (summer) holiday, I went about researching where the fireworks would be held in West Palm Beach. As luck would have it, there is a park about 4 blocks or so from our house and the festivities were being held there. This was almost too good to be true! It is excruciatingly hot outside in Florida this time of year, and I didn't want to have to deal with parking, where to sit, getting home, and all of the other fun activities that single/babyless people do so easily and without much (if any) thought. All of these things seemed like very daunting tasks... not to mention the feeding, diapering, and crying that would come with bringing a baby along. We don't have to deal with that... YAY! Fireworks are at 9pm, so we get William ready (feed, change diaper, get him in the car seat, calm him down from being in the car seat, wait for daddy to get ready...) and walk over to the park at 8:30. We find a seat right away, sit down and 15 minutes later... fireworks! We couldn't have asked for a smoother experience... really.

While we were waiting, we took some fun "waiting for fireworks" pictures.

Ohhh... Ahhh... Fireworks!

William was pretty good. We tried to get him to watch, but I think he was mostly just confused as to what was going on around him and why we were at the park after dark. He started crying during the fireworks for a few seconds, but a little bouncing and mommy-talk got him quiet quickly and he eventually just fell asleep.

Overall, this was one of the best 4th of July experiences I've ever had. Usually there is a lot of parking stress and traffic stress and hours of sitting in a park sweating waiting for the fireworks, and I was sure that we would probably just stay in to avoid all of that fun. Our landlady wants us sooo badly to buy the townhouse from her, and we have thought about it, but always decide not to because it is missing a lot of the things I want from a house to raise children in. BUT, a fireworks experience that was this hasslefree... nah... I would still like to have a pool and a yard. My only wish is for next year, when William is walking, to have a similar experience and not have to go leaping into the intra-coastal after him!