Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! The Reid clan started the fourth by me bringing home breakfast burritos after working the night shift. Lucky for me, we finished our last case at 10pm and I got to sleep. I never get to sleep when I have to work my rare night shift. I'm usually in the OR working or the elevator next door to the call room is keeping me awake. Thanks to the white noise app on my phone it completely drowned out the elevator and I got some zzz's. I was glad too, because I didn't want to spend the day trying to catch up on sleep. So, after breakfast we went to the Independence parade in our city. It was short, sweet and we got some shade. Olivia loved the cheerleaders tossing out candy. Adam liked the classic cars. I couldn't help but adore the older veterans as they marched down the street holding the American flag. It looked as though they might falter under the weight of it but they just kept going strong and I could just feel my heart swell when I heard the song "Proud to be an American" because I AM! Then we went home and had leftovers for lunch and headed to the pool because it was flippin' hot! I swam laps for a half hour and then we alternated between the kids pool, which has a beach entry and warmer water and the lap pool which is much cooler. After awhile Benji nursed and took a nap under our umbrella (I love that he does that, it makes it much easier and more fun because our schedule doesn't mess up his schedule.). We snacked and sunned and swam for almost four hours, then we left and picked up a couple of items from the store and some fireworks too. I made yummy turkey burger sliders, sweet potato french fries, pepper salad, corn on the cob and sliced watermelon. You'd think I would have been full from that meal but our little savage Benji growls at me all through dinner if I don't shovel food in his mouth fast enough and then starts whining when he's ready to get down, so needless to say I sampled and then put him in the bath. It doesn't get dark until 9pm here so we watched the first part of The Patriot then Adam told Olivia the story of General Washington and how he led 9,000 soldiers to safety from Long Island across the East River through an unusual fog that appeared on an August morning, saving them from the 20,000 British soldiers that were ready to massacre them. Once it was dark, a naughty little boy wasn't ready for bed so we took him outside and did our fireworks. They were puny but fun anyway. He, at first, seemed impressed and then just rested his head back against my chest and watched silently. Then it was bedtime! For me it was a long exhausting day but so fun to be able to enjoy it with my family!