Happy 4th!

We really did have a happy 4th of July. We didn't have any plans for the holiday so the night before, we decided to possibly go to Stony Brook State Park. We went there 2 years ago (on the 4th of July) when Natalie was in town and we thought it was a great place to spend a beautiful day. After waking up, Ben and Ethan went and got bagels and then we headed out. It takes about an hour to drive down to Stony Brook and once we got there we loaded up Eleanor in the Ergo carrier and Ethan walked alongside. We hiked for a little bit (it's not really a hike, we wore flip flops) and stopped at some of the falls along the way.



Ethan gradually wanted to get more wet each time we stopped. By the last waterfall he was just in his diaper. Yes, a little white trash, but we had left his swim trunks in the car and we weren't about to hike down just for the sake of looking classy. Ethan loved walking in the small pools of water and seemed to get a little more adventurous and wanted to venture out on his own. Since he can't swim, we had to hold his hand the entire time, but he was having a blast.






Since Ethan had a soggy diaper we made him go diaper-less (he wore just shorts) on the trek down which he did great with. No accidents. We put him in a diaper and then let him play on the playground there for a little while before heading out to lunch at good ol' McDonalds. We thought about going home after that, but we asked Ethan if he wanted to go back and he said he did. Once we got back into the park we put him in him swimsuit and walked up to the first little "pool" area. Ben and I took turns walking Ethan through the little rapids. He LOVED it. Eleanor tried eating gravel which we didn't love so we had to sit with her on the side on a towel. After getting out of the water Ethan was feeling more adventurous and was climbing up a bunch of rocks. We decided that his new-found sense of confidence was a good thing since sometimes he's almost too cautious for us. We finally left the park around 3 or so and the kids crashed in the car pretty much the entire ride home.





Once we got home we ate dinner and hung out before deciding to go downtown to watch the fireworks. We were going to park at Ben's building and then walk out to one of the bridges, but when we parked we noticed that you could sit on a ledge and watch the fireworks from the garage. So, we backed our car in so we could make a speedy exit out of the garage. We had to wait around for about 45 minutes or so, so I took Ethan down to the road to walk around a little bit. Meanwhile, Eleanor had her own fireworks going on as she blew out of her diaper and on to the pj's she was wearing. We could tell Ethan was getting really tired and he talked about wanting to go home but we promised that he'd love the fireworks. So cue 10 o'clock when the fireworks start and Eleanor decided to have some more fireworks of her own. Unfortunately this time it involved her throwing up all over the front of me, herself and part of the blanket we were sitting on. Ben held her as I went to get some wipes from the car and then she threw up on him too. Poor lady. Poor us. We all stunk. I think the sound of the fireworks going off made her a little uneasy, and since it had been a long day and she had a little bit of potato salad in her stomach it just made for a lethal combination. Ethan was really into the fireworks but after about 15 minutes he said to me, "I'm tired. I want to go home." Ethan has NEVER said he's tired to me before, so we knew that he really was. We headed out of the garage right as the finale was going on. We made it home after hitting a little bit of traffic and both kids crashed for the night. Phew, we were ready for bed too. Despite the unhappy ending, we really enjoyed spending the 4th together.