When I was a teenager I grew up in Sacramento where fireworks were legal. My favorite memory was getting several families together at our friend's The Millers and pooling our fireworks. Amongst us we must of had $200-300 worth every year. One by one we would put on a show that would last hours including sparklers, piccolo pete, the flower, the pinwheel and so may more I can't even remember them anymore. The family who hosted would even go fancy and bring in the bottle rockets from Mexico. They were exciting because they were illegal, but never really did much.
As I moved away from Sacramento and grew older these weekends of fireworks and family became less and less. We would bbq with friends, spend the day at the beach, sit in the park and watch the fireworks. I remember one year I was visiting Carl in Illinois and we were at his family farm and I wanted to see the fireworks so badly and went outside for a closer look. I had no clue about mosquitoes being a California girl, and was eaten alive. It just was never the same all those 4th of July's after we left Sacramento and I left my childhood behind.
So now the 4th just means spending time with friends and family and whoever wants to be with us. My kids don't have cousins yet, so we just try to get in as much Grandparent time as possible. This weekend we have two parts planned. We just spent a day in Ojai swimming and bbqing and just enjoying family and then tomorrow my mom is coming over to watch the fireworks from my front yard. My brother and sister are both out of town now so no extra big family celebration this year. Maybe when we have some cousins around...
So here are just a few of the things we did while up in Ojai the last couple days. I was super excited to finally put our swim lessons to use and Elliot was more than happy to practice and even swam a bit. Erik of course was resistant and wouldn't do anything. At least he played in the water which is all I can ask sometimes.
It's not a true 4th of July weekend unless you are shucking corn.
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| Elliot was trying to sneak a bit of corn! |
There is also the tradition of fresh lemonade which my boys go crazy for. Grandma was good and didn't put too much sugar in it.
Fishing by the pool seems to be a new tradition as well.
Grandpa's famous dives that make Lovey go crazy, but in this case it was more of a flip than a dive.
Any 4th of July isn't complete without a little ice cream and this was a funny story. Erik ate his up and then went up to Elliot and asked him for his. I of course thought Elliot would say no, I guess he was full and decided it would be fun to start feeding his brother his ice cream. Precious!
The boys went down for their bedtime fairly easy that night considering they were at their grandparents. The next morning Erik got to see the new "Cars" movie with daddy and Grandma and Elliot, Grandpa and I stayed back to play around the orchard. This is how we entertained ourselves.
First a walk around the orchard, but since it was very rainy this year it is filled with weeds making a walk a challenge for a 2 year old. He gave it his best shot before turning around.
Then a stop at the tractors, only one visit though because it was hot and he didn't want to sit on them today.
Grandpa was working on getting his Model A ready for a parade tomorrow so we stopped by the car barn. I have to give a shout out to my father-in-law. In his 60s he built this entire barn all by himself. It is very impressive and well done.
A little ride on this big wheel which he is obsessed with and wears this kid out! Grandpa got it at a garage sale for $2 and these kids have had hours of fun on it.
The local life, a turkey vulture and Lovey Smith who followed us all over the orchard on our adventure this morning.
A little side information about Elliot, he is really good mechanically. It is amazing what this kid figures out. The other day I watched him play with the remote, he knew how to turn on the tv and if he aimed it right he would have gotten a channel on no problem. No one has ever shown him this. On this day he was figuring out the fishing rod and I was seriously impressed watching him study it and figure out how to turn the rod to wrap the string. No one showed him and he figured it out. I think this is the area he is excelling in the most, his engineering, figuring things out skill.
Here are my two favorite moments of the visit. My first isn't pictured since I am the one who takes the pictures. I finally got Erik to float on me in the pool and he just laid on my and then it turned into goofy fun play. When it was over he said "I had fun floating with you today, thank you mommy." It is moments like those that will be gone way too fast. The second moment is watching Elliot do laps in his big wheel around the pool. He is getting so fast on his feet.
As I look at these picture it reminds me that although I have these precious memories of my childhood 4th of July parties that I will forever cherish and value, I am making new memories with my children and these are the memories they will look back upon and remember with a smile.
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