4th of July

I love 4th of July. It's a close second to Christmas and the whole Holiday season as a whole. Last weekend went by so fast but we tried to enjoy every second of it that we could!

We started our 4th of July early by taking to Mason to Disneyland on Thursday night to catch their fireworks. I wasn't sure what Mason would think of it since the last time we saw fireworks he was pretty scared and kept saying "Too loud!" and "SCAREY!"...
This time he LOVED them and I was so glad. He sat atop of Daddy's shoulders and watched the fireworks in awe while I watched him love every boom & sparkle... and I was in awe of him. He watched wide eyed with excitement and every so often would exclaim 'WOW!' or 'Cool Mommy Daddy!'.

After the fireworks were over, Mason looked down at me (from Daddy's shoulders) and says. "Mom, Ice cream? Please, ICE CREAM! PLEASE! ICE CREAM ICE CREAM ICE CREAM!" (he's learned that repetition works to get his way!) So we broke down and bought him a chocolate covered ice cream on a stick. He loved every last drip and drop of it. I tried to sneak a few licks here and there and was told very matter of factly... "NO! MINE ICE CREAM!" So after a few attempts I decided it was smart for me to go back and get my own instead of fight my two year old for a lick... There was no way that kid was going to share it. So I snapped this picture to remember the moment. We really had so much fun as a family that night.

4th of July was awesome. We went to a patriotic show in the morning at church then off to the neighborhood BBQ & parade. Mason got to march in his very first one. I'm not sure that he cared, but it was fun to see all the kids and their bikes decorated so patriotically. That afternoon we went swimming and BBQ'd some more with family & friends. After all that fun and excitement of the day, and since we had seen the fireworks from the night before, we didn't feel the urge to rush out and see them again and actuallywent to bed early! (that's not normal for me!)
My favorite part of the weekend was taking Mason swimming. He's officially a big boy now. He is learning how to swim with floaties (I'm sad I didn't take any pictures!). I figured it was time to start teaching him the basics since he has absolutely no fear of the water, and that TERRIFIES me! He will jump right in without even thinking twice. So we put the floating devices on him and spent all day Friday teaching him how to kick and use his arms. He woke up on Saturday morning asking if he could go swimming. I tried to get him dressed and he told me, NO! Masey put on the Baby-Suit!". So we took him again on Saturday. Once in the afternoon and then again right before sun down.
It was all fun and games until... Shane jumped in and some how tweaked his foot on the bottom of the pool. He came up in agonizing pain. Poor guy! I didn't see what he did, but he said he was trying to get a laugh from Mason. (He'll do anything to make that kid smile!) At first it didn't seem like a big deal, but by mid-night that night he was in so much pain he woke me up and asked me to take him to the emergency room. After a long late night visit in emergency we figured out it WAS NOT broken, but that he did a pretty good number on it! It was black and blue and super swolen, so the ER put a half cast on his foot 'Just in Case' and also sent him home on crutches. He was less then thrilled! But he got some good meds to help with the pain. (This picture was taken on Thursday night - BEFORE the crutches, etc.) Anyway, he went to see a good friend of ours who's an orthopedic doctor a few days ago to get a second opinion and he let Shane take off the half cast and gave him a brace that he could take off and walk on. Shane said his foot has felt 10 times better once the half cast came off! I don't know if those things are made to torture or fix! Long story short, it was an exciting weekend. We wont let Shane's incident keep us from going swimming more this summer. Mason loves it so much and has asked me every day this week if we can get his 'Baby-suit' on and go swimming. (I love that he calls it that!)