our fourth of july.

This year was Olive's second fourth of July but first that we did anything special. If you know us well you're probably aware that we don't seem to be "holiday people". We're not anti holiday but we don't go out of our way to celebrate anything too much. We're almost certain that we're not going to do things like santa or the Easter bunny.

So.. like I said.. we're not anti holiday.. If an opportunity to celebrate something were to present itself we would likely be accepting and excited.

Tyler's friend, Luke, invited us over to his parent's house to go swimming and have dinner. We thought we would play it by ear and see what would be best for Olive. After her nap the weather seemed a bit more tolerable so we packed up our swimming stuff and headed to Brooklyn Center.

I was already wearing a blue dress so I grabbed some red shoes. I decided my legs would play the part of "white". ha.



I threw together a somewhat festive looking outfit for Olive but she wasn't very impressed.



I didn't take many photos at Luke's because I was in the pool. Olive did a little floating around in this orange thing and on a big floating raft but she preferred to be right in the water. Luke's family has a lot of dogs and Olive seemed both amused at and confused by the dogs in, around, and on rafts in the pool. After we went inside to eat Olive and I went back to the pool. She did a great job at putting her head under water and also trying to swim. :)



After our last time in the pool we went into a bathroom to dry off and get ready to head downtown for the fireworks show. Olive immediately pointed the toilet so I put her on it and, honestly, she peed more than I have ever seen her go ever before, which was both interesting and shocking but also rather exciting... I'm pretty sure that means she didn't pee in the pool. I think it's just assumed that it happens...

We drove to downtown Minneapolis with our windows open - letting our hair dry in the breeze. :) At this point it was a little after Olive's typically bedtime.



After finding a parking spot in a ramp and walking past the Guthrie Theatre we climbed our way through some praire grass where we found Luke and our blanket.  Our spot was great - on a hill, praire grass all around, far above the river and the Stone Arch Bridge.



Tyler explained to Olive that there were going to be big lights in the sky just over the river and the bridges.



Olive was understandably getting a little antsy.  We pointed out the interesting things around us while waiting for the show to begin.



Olive was engrossed.  I expected her to be interested and impressed.. and she was.



Eventually she wanted to get closer to us so she climbed around the blanket instead of being stuck in her stroller.  For the grand finale she was sitting with Tyler - her eyes glued the sky.  Immediately after it was over and people began cheering Olive starting signing "more".  :)



We got sleepy head ready to go and made our way through the crowd.



Here is a view of some of the crowd dispersing back to where they came from.  We had to sit in the parking ramp for an extremely long time.  We drove Luke back to Brooklyn Center and Olive fell asleep in the car.



I assumed Olive would love fireworks but it was great to see her so interested and happy.  :)

I hope you had a great 4th of July too!