The 4th of July Spectacular!

What a day! The 4th of July might have been the first day of the summer where everything we hoped to do was well executed and Elisa obliged without too much toddler craziness. Usually, we can push her limits, but we pay for it later. But yesterday was a pretty awesome day all around. We started at Topsail beach where I hadn't been in ages, then had a nice tapas style dinner at Stacey's and made it to fireworks on the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune. In typical fashion, I played the whole day out many times, mulling over whether to send Elisa home with Grandma and Grandpa before the big evening out, or just let her stay up and see what happened. Knowing we would be hitting the road for the Raleigh-Durham airport early this morning was making me think it would be better to let her get some rest and avoid the whole melting down scenario at the late bedtime and loud festivities. But that just didn't feel like fun. So we went for it, and Elisa rolled along with the evening entertaining us all with her camera hogging and practicing her ear plugging before the loud noises had even begun. It was a memorable night for Elisa's first firework celebrations and I can see her enjoying them in NYC next year.

Fortunately, our flight options were a bit better than expected when we checked last night and we were able to head out at a more respectable hour this morning, so the late night didn't lead to an early morning after all. Elisa was up at her normal time and held on during the flight, only to land around 2:30 p.m. and pass out. She was so sound asleep on the way upstairs this afternoon that I even changed her diaper without waking her up. Seriously out. With the nearly 100 degree temps today, we were all feeling lethargic so I'm glad it was a lazy day at home. Let's see what the rest of the week and the continuing heat wave brings. Hopefully a Spanish futbol victory on Wednesday (yes, I'm that excited!) and playgroup in the morning. Feels good to be home, and I'm hoping we can pack a lot more fun into the next two weeks before we take off for the rest of the summer. Where did the time go?