July 4th

We had a great 4th. The day started out just getting ready for the CO trip. Todd took Aiden to do a few errands. Just to show what a little escape artist he is, he talked Todd into letting him sit in the big part of the cart instead of the seat with the belt. Todd was crouched down looking at something on the shelf and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Aiden taking off around the corner. The little stinker climbed out of the shopping cart and took off without Todd noticing. Maybe I shouldn't let Todd take him anymore....... Then Todd gets out our car top carrier. We had bought one for our last CO trip and the strap broke during our trip. When we got home Todd exchanged it for a new one, I assumed for another of the same. He pulls it out yesterday and it looked awfully small. He said it opened up more. Whew, good, because it looked like a freaking duffel bag and we needed it to be big enough for a stroller and a pack and play. Today he does a "test" run of packing and we find that it doesn't open up any more. It isn't big enough to hold a stroller much less a stroller AND pack and play. UGH. But it's big enough to hold ONE suitcase. Whoop-de-doo. Luckily all 3 hotels had free cribs and we got those in our rooms so we don't have to take the pack and play and I think we can make it all fit still.

That evening we spent at "the house across the river" at Uncle Tim and Aunt Janet's. The kids had a blast playing and throwing those poppers. The food was incredible and right after supper a nice breeze came through and cooled everything off so the rest of the evening was just perfect. We enjoyed a nice fireworks display, there were some really cool ones, even "The Big Dog" that Matt bought. Jordan bought a bunch too as did Janet, Matt, etc. We had so much fun.We got to watch fireworks on the drive home too. A lot of people were shooting them off and as we got closer to Quincy we could see the ones by the river and the ones at the Gems game. I wish we could have timed it so we were driving over the bridge during the finale. That would have been aweome. The boys were tired. When we got home we found them asleep in the back of the van.

Todd always said one of his favorite memories of childhood was when he'd fall asleep in the car and his dad would carry him inside and put him to bed. He says it's now one of his favorite things about being a dad. Todd was in heaven last night. He got to carry all of his babies inside.