Happy Fourth! And, Happy Anniversary!

Well, it's been a full day already! We got up early, headed over to Chebon's, watched a parade, headed out to the lake, sailed a bit, ran back home, had some McDonald's, and are now getting some rest before tonight's big event.

Coordinating all of this took some doing... A bottle needed to be prepared for Benjamin, Emily needed a life jacket, a bag of "stuff" (towels, swim suits, bug spray, sun screen (or sun scream if Emily's doing the talking), Benjamin needed to be fed just before we left to the lake to give us enough time, food prepared for out on the lake, and last minute diapers "just in case." Whew! That sure was a lot of work to prepare for this! And while I ran this morning, by myself, Leslie took care of all of it, by herself... oh wait, with TWO KIDS. I should stop my trying to get nominated for dad of the year, I've won it too many times.

When we got to Chebon's house this morning, Kate was making blueberry waffles, which Emily loved.  We chatted for a while, Emily got to see the big dogs ("One looks like Molly and one looks like Jasmine!"), and she fed them some left-overs.  Kate took her down to the snow cone stand to see if they had any snow cones, but no luck there.  We watched the "parade" and Emily clapped for everybody going by.

Let me try to summarize as best I can the parade:

... kid on bike... kid on bike... parent with kid in stroller... kid on bike... man in golf cart... Parade over!

Okay, it was actually really neat to see, Leslie would love to have one in our neighborhood with all the kids, and Emily loved watching everybody go by.  There's some video of a kid on a scooter going by, so check out the pics/vids when you get a chance.

Dad came over to Chebon's and picked up Benjamin, and we headed out to the lake.  Emily loved her new life jacket (we were worried she would freak out when she had to put it on, but leave it to marketing/Barbie power to make it easier) and was ready to get on the water.  We could tell she was getting a little hesitant as we neared the dock, but she powered through it.  While Kyle, Chebon and I got the boat ready, Emily, Leslie, and Kate hung out by the boat waiting.  At one point Chebon picked up Emily and about thirty seconds into her death grips on his shirt, both in front and in back, she decided she was "too heavy" and needed to go back to mommy.

After we got in the water, Emily had a blast.  We sailed out for about a half an hour, then turned the boat around to come back.. which is when the wind decided to die, and we spent most of our time coming back with the motor.  Emily was getting tired/hot toward the end, but she made it! Let me just add, the "under" part, whatever that's called.. cabin or something.. WOW, heat doesn't really describe it well.  Chebon said it best after emerging, "I've got vision sweats."

I also realized this morning that today is the one year anniversary of this blog! For a little fun, here's a copy of the first post:

fish fry at Chebon's (7.4.07)

We had a great time today at Chebon's house for the fish fry! Emily ate and ate and ate and ate and ate... then ate some more. She played ring around the rosie with several folks, and went potty about a hundred times. It was great meeting all of Kate's family and friends, and seeing Chebon's family and friends as well. It was very well done, worthy of a "Frasier-style" get together!

After the cookout we went over to Mema Marge's house for dinner (we were trying to eat healthy, Leslie was better at it than I at Chebon's) and then came home. We decided to skip fireworks this year, but maybe next year! Right now we're hoping that Emily doesn't wake up thinking the fireworks are thunder tonight.. We'll see!
edit: Well, against our better judgement, we decided to roll Emily out of bed at about 10:00 when we noticed that out or front door we could see about six or seven separate fireworks events going on north of us (probably in moore). I think Emily was awake for about thirty seconds, just long enough to wonder what the heck was going on. So, I guess she got to see fireworks this year after all!

 I tried to take the same pictures over at Chebon's this morning, to see a year's difference, and here's our updated batch:

I'm just amazed that in a whole year, Chebon hasn't been able to buy a new shirt :)

Well, that's it for now.  The rest of the day is hanging out with Chebon and Kate (after naps over here...), cooking out over at mom's house with Pat, Randy, and Patricia, and fireworks tonight! I'll update more later!