4th of July

Eric's parents' neighborhood had a little parade (1st annual?) in the afternoon and we thought it would be fun to decorate Gordon's yard wagon and pull the girls in it. They weren't too sure about it, but they went along with it.

Eric pulling the girls. Carolyn is walking with the dogs, they got dressed up in their 4th of July bandanas from the groomer. Notice that one dog is walking and the other is being carried.

I of course don't have any pictures of them smiling or looking at the camera. Oh well, at least they rode in the wagon.

After the parade there was a BBQ. Kaylin had lots of fun playing with the neighborhood kids and eating chips and hot dogs and drinking capri suns. Apparently all the fun and sun wore her out, she informed us she was ready to go and got in the wagon with a blanket. It was hot out, but she claimed she was cold.

We didn't have plans for the night time. I wasn't going to sit at home all night and I love the big fireworks shows, so I came up with a *brilliant* idea. I decided that we would load the girls in the car at bedtime and hope that at least Lauren fell asleep. Then we would find a spot overlooking Lake Union and watch the fireworks from the car while listening to the accompanying music on the radio.

Well... it didn't go as planned.

We drove to Seattle and started driving around the hills surrounding Lake Union. Every road with a view was blocked with barriers and a police car. We found a park that had a view of the Space Needle where people had set up chairs to watch the fireworks. Since Lauren was refusing to sleep, we got out of the car and set up some chairs.

My family is so photogenic.

Thankfully I brought Lauren's shoes so she could wear them over her pajamas. When the fireworks started they were directly behind some trees. Kaylin and Lauren didn't care, they thought they were amazing. We grabbed our stuff and rushed off with everyone else in search of a better viewing area. We got as close to the fireworks as we could while still in the park and watched them through some trees. The really big ones were high enough to clear the trees, but the rest were partially blocked. This is about the only time I am annoyed by trees in Seattle.

We still had fun and Kaylin loved the fireworks. She didn't even seem to realize that they were blocked by trees.

Next year we'll have to make different plans.

For any locals who are curious, while Volunteer Park has great views of the Space Needle, the lake, and downtown, it doesn't have great views of Gasworks and therefore the fireworks.