Fourth of July '09

Happy Fourth Of July!!! We hope all of you had a fantastic day.

Well, I put miss Karlie in this cute holiday dress and thought I would take a couple of pictures. She was in true two year old form and didn't want to cooperate. I got a few shots, but not what I hoping for.

She started out hamming it up. But then got a little wild.

This one wasn't too bad.

Daddy told her to look up at the stars on her head. But it looks like she is rolling her eyes at me. I guess I have more of this look to look forward to in upcoming years.

A little pool time. It was 97 degrees in the early afternoon, so we thought Karlie should cool down and play in the pool.

Slide...........SPLASH!

Silliness!

She loves this Elmo bathing suit because it has a skirt. But when she first got it on, she wouldn't sit down in the pool because she thought she shouldn't get the skirt wet. It took some convincing, but she finally went for it.

We had a family barbecue. Great Grandma Sinclair, Great Grandma Bennett, Grandma Kathy, Auntie Crystal and her friend Alicia came over to eat and do fireworks with us.

Karlie has a little fear of loud noises, so we weren't sure how she would do around the fireworks. We started out by giving her the little snapping things that you throw on the ground and they pop. She loved those. I think she used two boxes all by herself.

This was her reaction to the colored smoke bombs.

Sparklers were scary for about two seconds, until she realized that they didn't make any noise.

I love the look of amazement on her face.

We did a few fireworks at our house, then we all walked down to Great Grandma Bennett's to watch the big fireworks. In this picture Karlie is on Kathy's lap, Scott, Great Grandma Sinclair and Great Grandma Bennett.

Auntie Crystal and her friend Alicia are in this one.

Karlie waiting for the fireworks to start.

She loved the big fireworks. She watched them intently.

The best part of this for me was watching it through Karlie's eyes. I spent a lot more time watching her than I did the fireworks.

Back at our house we had a lot of fireworks to do. Auntie Crystal hooked us up with some awesome illegal fireworks. She evidently knew someone that was selling them and got a ton of fireworks for $50. They were a little noisy as you can tell by the above picture. But I don't think that Scott and I have done this many fireworks at home in ten years.

Here we are watching the fireworks. Well, except for me. I think I am always behind the camera and rarely in the photos.

One last sparkler before heading off to bed.

It was a great night. We had a lot of fun with everyone. We just wish that we could have celebrated with ALL of our family.