4th of July

The 4^th of July is always a little hectic. We have to get up early to get down to Newport Beach by 8am to get parking.  It’s a lot of stuff to unload and set up and usually, it isn’t even that nice out until the clouds burn off around noon.  This year, the weather was nice right from the start and the water was warm, so that got things off to a great start.  Peter was pretty whiny most of the day, but Jane was absolutely adorable.  She loved chasing the waves and danced between each set.  We had fun going into the water together.  I would hold her and crouch down and she would scream stand up nervous-excitedly as the next wave approached and I would pop up just in time.  She loved it, and I loved having that one on one time with her.  No cameras, just mommy and Jane time.  After lunch, Daddy got some great Jane time in collecting shells with her.  They found tons and filled up a bucket with their treasures.  Alice took a killer nap on the beach, giving us lots of free, relaxing beach time.  It was wonderful.  

 It was so nice to have Theresa stop in, even if it was just for a few minutes.  Jane had so much fun with her Grandma.

 I love this kid.  He sticks those lips out so far.  It's the cutest thing.

After cleaning up the beach stuff and bathing sandy children, we headed over to watch the fireworks.  It was a little colder than I expected, but listening to Jane and Peter chattering away as they watched made it worth it.  Back at the Reid homestead, Dave had purchased a bunch of fireworks, but of course the kids were way too tired to enjoy them, so we lit off a few ourselves, which was just as fun.

California - Zoo and Beach

Chris and Dave left Friday morning for Steve and Leah Ridge’s sealing in Utah, so Caitlin and I decided to take the kids to the Santa Ana Zoo.  It’s a small zoo, but just perfect for our little crew.  We walked the loop and saw all the animals, stopping to take pictures on the animal statues. The monkeys were my favorite part.  They were SO active, swinging and playing all over their jungle gyms.  At the end we stopped at the playground for our own little monkeys to play around.  The playground had a sand floor and Peter was a little out of control in it.  He kept throwing himself backwards and rolling around in the sand.  At one point he came back to me on the bench with his tongue out and mouth covered in sand.  It was pretty funny trying to wash it out since he really doesn’t know how to spit yet.

We were home by lunchtime and then let the kids play in the kiddie pool in the backyard.  With 7 kids under seven, we were content to take it easy and spend the rest of our evening at home.  We ordered a pizza and the Katzoff’s came over to visit.  It was a nice relaxing day.

Our kids always LOVE playing at the Reid house.  They often don't want to leave to do any of the fun things we have planned.  Jane was in princess heaven and Peter had more cars than he knew what to do with.  Alice was pretty happy using Jacob's toys too.

The boys came back Saturday morning and we headed straight to the beach.  It was a perfect day.  The temperature was just right and the water was pretty warm.  Too bad our kids were aggravatingly whiney and miserable.  Jane didn’t want anything to do with the sand.  Peter, didn’t hesitate to roll around in the sand, but was suddenly complaining that something was bugging him, but it was hard to tell what.  We weren’t sure we’d be staying very long.  We sat them down on a towel and shoveled snacks into them for a while and after that they were much more agreeable.   Jane was still concerned about the sand, but she tolerated it enough to enjoy playing with the buckets and shovels.  We built and sand castle and chased waves.  My favorite part was sitting in the sand with Jane on my lap having the waves come up and splash our legs.  It was a wonderful day and we stayed longer than we meant to.  We had dinner at Baja Fish Tacos and headed home for the big sandy clean up and then of course, games.