4th of July

Suuuuuuper happy about this year's 4th of July celebration. Hands down it beats out any other year of adulthood and that's including pre-marriage life. Back when I was a young, unmarried whippersnapper, the 4th was spent on the peninsula in Newport Beach. Even in the throes of those wild years, the Newport celebrations were excessively over the top for me. Too much booze, too many cops out, too many freaky decisions being made. Then of course once married life hit, things slowed down but it was still a slightly annoying holiday to me. Hot as heck, driving around on the freeways with drunkards out there, yuck, yuck, yuck. And forget about the 4th after children came along! Oh my gosh, WAY too hot, TOO long of a day, schlepping sweaty kids around, sun burns, tears during fireworks, OVER IT by 4:30. Hahaha, it sounds like I've loathed the 4th which I never have, but I definitely had a hard time relating to people's "FAVORITE HOLIDAY EVER" status's.

Anyway! After being told several times by neighbors how stellar our backyard view was going to be of the main Corona fireworks, we invited my sister and her family over to spend the night with us! How fun does that sound?! No driving around after dark, rooms where tots can nap soundly, cousins playing, drinks, food, pools for babes - DREAM HOLIDAY. She quickly said yes, then we invited a few more of our Corona friends with kids and hey! It was an impromptu party!

Soooooo much relaxing fun! Oh man, it was awesome. One of our little party-goers ended the evening with a fever, so they left for home right before dinner, then our friends with a 4 month old were just way tired of dealing with the holiday with their new addition. I totally felt their pain - over and over again I just kept saying, "I feel you right now! The 4th with kids is a whole other animal!" So they took off to put their little guy down for bed in his crib. The sister and fam hung for the rest of the night, but since neither one of them was drinking (Whole30 converts! Hey-o), they ended up heading home around 10:30. All in all, it was fabulous!

The long holiday from hell turned into quite the enjoyable day. And hey! We even knocked out a little of the garage make over before people came over. However, I do not recommend spray painting ANYTHING prior to hosting guests. Read: black feet and legs with a rainbow sandal "tan line." It was gross and I was perturbed that I even attempted to do something like that. Thank goodness it came right off in the shower but still. Come on with that!

^^^BEST PICTURE EVER.