Independence Weekend

It was HOT this weekend! The house was in the '80s and the best way to cool down Friday afternoon was to put on shorts and leave the babe in a diaper and go sit outside. With the sprinkler watering half of the lawn, there was a nice cool breeze floating by to take the edge off.



This picture reminds me of those old paintings in European cathedrals where Christ and Mary have halos painted around their heads. I know I am biased but I have always thought my babe was angelic, cherubic and perhaps even "the chosen one!"

Our sweet little bug!

On the 4th of July, we went over to Uncle John & Aunt Shivonne's house. She and I reminisced about the first 4th I spent with their family which was also the first time I was officially introduced to the Byrne/Smee/Haistings clan. That day was dreary and cold (at least to my warm blooded Vegas veins), my toes were freezing in my Birkenstock sandals and my teeth were definitely chattering. As the kids were shooting off fireworks, I was shivering yet refusing offers of blankets (I didn't want to be a burden) and thankfully Shivonne retrieved a big wool coat and draped it over me. That said, the 80 degree weather was easily the warmest I remember in my 12 years in the Puget Sound.

Great Grandmother Peggy just adores her only great grandson. He was getting rather cranky by the time we took this picture and we actually had to leave about 45 minutes later after barely eating dinner. We wish he could have held out longer so we could enjoy more family time.

We managed to keep him awake on the car ride home and by the time we put him to bed around 8pm, he was exhausted. So much so that he slept through the very loud fireworks... everyone in our neighborhood seemed to have M80s & M100s (which are of course illegal) and set them off as late as 1am.

Unfortunately these are the last pictures I will likely be able to post for awhile. While enjoying the 4th with our neighbors, I set up my camera and tripod to try my hand and shooting fireworks. I turned around in my chair and turned back just in time to watch my tripod and camera smashing into the asphalt. I love that camera and I am SO mad at myself (there was no one else I could remotely blame it on). The repair work on the lens is as much as a new one and the shutter on the camera body is bent and won't open/close properly... and that's just the stuff I know is wrong. I am going to have to ship it off to Nikon for repair work for a few weeks. Whah! The good news was that I could retrieve all the above pictures from the memory card so at least there is no loss there.