Saturday, July 05, 2008

Happy Belated 4th of July

We had a busy day yesterday. The 4th of July is John's favorite holiday and last year was kind of a bust, with it being freezing and pouring down rain in Albany.

We started out the day at the blueberry pancake and sausage breakfast put on by the Lion's Club. I have no idea what the Lion's Club is, but I can tell you they can run a giant breakfast to feed an army. And it was good!

Then, we went to a frog jumping contest. I've never been to anything like this before, and I have to say, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately, Becca was being the whiniest kid EVERRRRRR and kept saying, "Take me home, Mama. Mommmmmmmeeeeeeeeee....I want to go home. Weeeeeeeh (whine)."
So, we only saw about 6 of the 120 frogs do their jumping. They were measuring how far the frogs jumped in three jumps. It was pretty funny watching them escape the fence and seeing piles of kids running after them and leaping on top of them.

After the whinefest, we came home and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. Tracy and her girls came over.
At one o'clock Becca asked to go take a nap...even though her friends were still here (Who is this kid?) Too bad she barely took a 2 hour one.

Then, off to the parade. I love small town parades. Becca was terrified of the tractors, clowns and the muscle cars. She did a repeat performance of this. But, John managed to talk her out of it, by some small miracle. She ended up enjoying the parade, despite the rain. She liked the horses and the "princesses" (the pageant girls wearing tiaras).
I'm hoping that next year, there will be NO UMBRELLAS on July 4th. Although, John and I keep being so amazed and how liveable it is up here in the summer. We can go outside most days (except during the worst of the hellish heat waves.) It is green and lush and a very enjoyable place to be in the summer--at least during the first half of the summer. So, I guess you have to have rain for that to happen. But, why does it have to rain on our parades?

We had a slice of pizza in a small pizzeria and then went home. John and I were able to see quite a fireworks show from the guest room window. We are up on a bit of a hill and got a good view of about four or five different fireworks displays, including the town's display, and our backyard neighbors who must have spent $500 on some pretty spectacular fireworks. Becca never woke up, despite screeching and banging right outside her window! Of course, I was imagining a terror-filled child waking with screams. But, apparently fireworks are not nearly as scary as zoo animals.

4 comments:

Tracy said...

The girls slept through all the fireworks out here too, but Abby was a spaz case. I am glad you had fun. I agree with you on the weather. I think the humidity (or lack there of compared to the midwest) makes it totally bearable.

Anonymous said...

A frog jumping contest? Wow!

Have you read the short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain?

Andrea and Ben said...

I would love to see a jumping frogs contest!!! How fun!

Becca cracks me up, though, I have seen some scary things in parades before though for me it is the big pageant hair and tiaras ;0)

Jen said...

Wow, you guys had a festive and busy 4th of July! Glad John got to be home for it.

I love that picture of the three girls - adorable.

Jumping frogs. How do they come up with these things?