More Pictures from 4th of July Weekend

On Saturday we headed out to Grayland for the annual barbecue with Kevin's family. Since Kevin needed to do a bit of business at his seafood store down on the docks, he dropped us off at the beach for awhile first. And since Abby has been asking for the last several weeks to go see a lighthouse, we went to the Westport Lighthouse beach approach even though it is more crowded and a much further walk down to the actual beach.

It was Ben's first trip to the beach and he had so much fun running around in the sand....until he fell down and cried when the sand stuck to his hands. :) Since he doesn't mind dirt and is quite adventurous, I was a bit surprised at his reaction but I think it had more to do with the fact that the sand stuck to him - it's quite a bit different than anything else he's experienced.

We then walked up to the lighthouse which is actually quite far from the beach (it was right near the water when it was built over a hundred years ago). Although we didn't have time to go closer to the lighthouse, Abby and Ben played in the sand for the few minutes while we waited until Kevin picked us up again.

The kids had so much fun at the barbecue. Ben was drawn to all the 4th of July decorations that his Great-Uncle Howard had set up all around the yard. He also spent much time climbing in and out of just about every chair in the yard, child-size and adult-size.

Abby loved picking a few raspberries with Daddy, watching Daddy play croquet and badminton, and entertaining the crowd with a singing show. She pulled the chair leg rests together and got up on them as if on stage and then proceeded to sing the ABC Song, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children and Happy Birthday to America. I was very proud of my normally shy girl for being so outgoing. :)

Oh, and she also enjoyed eating a cupcake that she had helped decorate. :)

On Sunday evening, we had an impromptu barbecue with my mom and niece Hannah. While we waited for it to get dark so we could do our sparklers, we headed over to the park.

Abby decided to pretend that each of the square/rectangular areas beneath the play structure were rooms in a house. The typical ones were there: bedroom, living room, kitchen. The largest rectangle was "the bathtub," which she had fun rolling around in, and one square she decided would be her "singing room." I have no idea where she came up with that one, but she sure does love to sing! :)

Sitting in her "bathtub."

We took a couple "tree pictures" since we hadn't in awhile.

And then finally we got to do our fireworks! Abby was pretty hesitant and scared at first, but by the end of our supply of sparklers she was doing it on her own and was pretty sad when we ran out. Afterward, we bundled up and sat at the park to watch our neighbors do their more expensive and exciting fireworks. :) Both kids loved it and, even though Ben looked like would conk out at any second, he stayed awake until the end.

It was a fun weekend and the first time since we've been married that Kevin didn't have to fish. That's one advantage of commercial fishing versus charter fishing. :)