Small Town America

We have had an action packed week and really enjoyed getting to celebrate the 4th here in Wheaton, where the 4th of July is as big a deal as Christmas! My dad and Loretta came in for a visit on Friday and were here to see all the action. We have also had their company all week, which has been a treat for all of us. We started off the holiday weekend by pulling out Alec's tepee tent that he got for Christmas - it's too big for indoors, but it's a great outdoor tent and we thought he would love having it outside for the parade on Sunday. We continued the weekend with a firework display in Wheaton on Saturday night. Alec loved the fireworks and told us that the purple ones were his favorites. He sat still and watched them in awe for almost 30 minutes, he wasn't freaked out by the loud noises at all, in fact, I think he liked it! On Sunday morning we walked down 2 blocks to the Wheaton history center that was hosting a waffle breakfast before heading home for the parade, which ran right down our street. It is actually a really big deal in Wheaton, so much so that people started putting out their chairs and reserving spots on Friday night, so we were sure to reserve a spot in our own yard. The parade was great and a ton of fun to have right in front of the house. Alec loved the fire engines, the floats with people playing music, and most of all - all the candy they handed out. After a nap and a trip to the neighbors bbq to test out their backyard water slide, we headed over to Glen Ellyn for more fireworks, and they were awesome. They light them over a lake, but it is fairly small and they let people sit all around them. It was the closest to fireworks any of us had ever been and it was insane - we could literally watch them light them off in front of us and sitting directly underneath fireworks gives you a whole new appreciation for how awesome fireworks are. All of us loved them and the show made for a prefect end to a wonderful 4th of July. Since then we have been keeping busy with lots of shopping, eating and playing with Papa Randy and Retta before we head out to CO on Friday. Here are some pics from the weekend, and sorry for the ridiculously long and detailed post.

Tent set-up

First firework show

I love this one

A pre-parade Klondike bar that Alec got from another family who watched from our yard

Our parade spot

Papa Randy and Retta brought Alec a trash truck and he is 100% obsessed. He had it out front for the parade and it's such a hit that other kids came over to play with it.

This was our neighbors yard - they have a flag for every grand kid

The festive tent

Even Brody got to attend

Bringing out some toys

The fire engines, ambulances and police cars all came together with their horns blaring!

With some friends he met in the yard

Waiting for our second firework show - Alec was starting to get cranky, seeing how he had been up until 10:30 the night before and all, but the minute the show started he calmed right down.

Some post 4th photos - trash with Papa

and hand print hamburgers with Retta...we hope you all had as nice a 4th as we did!

Striding

Here are a few videos of Alec on his Strider - sorry for the delay Aunt Abby and Uncle Ross. He's a pro, and we really think he will be ready for a big boy bike in the next year. He is such a tough little boy - he takes a pretty good spill at the end of the first video and he didn't shed one tear, just got up and kept riding. And I apologize now for the shotty video quality - taping a kid on a bike is a lot harder than you might think.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day - a little late. My mom flew back with Alec and I from Sanibel, so we have had company for the last 10 days and been a little blog neglectful. Anyway - we had a wonderful Father's Day and Alec loved getting to spend it with Matt, who is hands down his favorite person in the entire world. Matt truly is a wonderful, devoted, hands-on Dad and Alec and I both feel so lucky to have him.

The boys - Alec continues to look more and more like Matt. They make a ton of similar facial expressions, which actually catch me off guard sometimes b/c Alec will make a face that is a spitting image of his dad.

Grammy and Alec at Jack Straws, a little outdoor hamburger/pizza restaurant in town. We miss you already Grammy!

Doing some high-jumps with Daddy - one of Alec's favorite Dad activities.

With mom on a pre-dinner walk/bike-ride

And the highlight of Alec's Father's Day - trash duty. Alec is 100% obsessed with the trash. We spend an inordinate amount of time with trash related activities over here. Alec's favorite things to do right now all revolve around trash. He loves to go from room to room in the house dumping out the cans and collecting all the trash into his various trash/recycle trucks, he loves watching for the trash trucks and talking about them constantly, he loves to pull out every single trash can in the garage and move them around in our yard, and he loves trash day. He tells me every week about how the trash men come on Mondays, and we pretty much spend half of every Monday talking about and analyzing all the trash that is put out on the streets. He will literally walk from house to house telling me how many trash cans/recycle cans/Home Depot bags (the paper lawn bags) each person has out and about which have been picked up already and which haven't. It's pretty nuts and kind of a strange obsession, but what can we do. The boy likes his trash! So - Father's Day was extra special for Alec b/c it fell on trash take-out day, one of his absolute favorites.

Dumping trash from one can into another is a huge area of interest - he does it all over the house. My mom thought it was pretty hilarious that the trash in her room was dumped out, moved around and sorted on a daily basis.

Alec will turn this giant can over onto its wheels and move it all over the yard. He usually takes it to and from the curb on his own, but since it was Father's Day and all - he let Matt help.

and some races

What better way to celebrate Dad and Father's Day than with some trash. We love you Matt!

Life's a Beach

We got back on Sunday from a great trip to Sanibel Island in FL. We met my mom, my Aunt Barbie, my cousin Rhett's wife Christie and their 7 year old Tyler. It was a great, very realxing trip and Alec thoroughly enjoyed the beach. Sanibel is a super cute little island, and we had a cottage that was only about 30 ft from the ocean, we also had a great pool. It was super hot, like 102 with 90 percent humidity, so we spent a lot of time in the water every day, and generally just relaxing and hanging out. We did go on one dolphin spotting cruise ride where we saw a bunch of dolphins, which was cool, although not as cool as seeing the dolphin's swimming in the ocean water right by us on the beach, which we ended up seeing several times.
All in all it was a great trip, and I think something we will try and make a yearly tradition of.

Watching for dolphin

Tyler and Alec. Alec absolutely adored Tyler and wanted to do every single thing that he did at all times.

Frisbee on the beach - he got really good

Some yard work at the condo

The beach - Sanibel is known for its shells, which you can see on the beach. It was incredible to see, and Alec loved collecting them everyday.

Races with Bub

Watching dolphin with Grammy

Headed to the beach for the day

Like last summer, Alec is already ridiculously tan. I dumped sun block on him the entire trip, but he still darkened right up - one trait he got from his mama.

The boys

The Sanibel crew

Alec also LOVED floating in the ocean - every time we were out he would want to lie on his back and float, waiting for another wave to come and crash into him. He wasn't so into floating at the pool, where instead he wantes to jump in every 5 seconds for hours on end.

More running - you know it's a good trip when you get almost everyone in the your party in on some good old fashion chase.

The Start of Summer

Alec and I are off to Sanibel Florida with Grammy, Bub, Christie and Tyler in the morning. We are very excited for a nice week long beach vacation. Until then, here are some pics from the last week. Ryan and Debbie came to visit this weekend, so we have enjoyed more great company. The first pic is Alec helping me make banana bread for them on Sat morning.

Reading with Debbie

We all ran a 5K yesterday morning that went right down our street -the proceeds went to the little zoo up the street, so we were thrilled to participate.

At the zoo with Ryan

Petting a snake

Alec wants to take everyone who comes to visit to feed the ducks

We finally got Alec his own lawn mower this year - he helps Matt every week

At the pool - we got a membership to the two pools in our neighborhood for the summer and we were thrilled to find out that they are these huge kid friendly pools with slides, fountains, and sandboxes. They even have a high-dive, which Matt and I thought were banned from pools forever. We will certainly enjoy them.

pool toys

Welcome summer

Gymnastics

Showing off some of his new gymnastics moves - what he really likes is watching the videos of himself.