the 4th of july!

my family did something crazy this year and spent the 4th in our home state of california! since i can remember, we have always spent indpendence day in utah or idaho. the 4th is amazing in both of those places but it was fun to change things up a bit. i have a best friend that goes to coronado every year with her family. i had heard her rave about it for so long i decided it was time to check out coronado on the 4th for myself! after hurdling over the obstacle of convincing my husband/family that -yes of course there is going to be traffic and crowds on the 4th let's take the good with the bad people!- we packed up and friday morning we were off to the charming and patriotic island. i even persuaded my family to sweat with me while watching the parade! still wondering how i pulled that off...

^had to capture ellie's bootiful lipstick job :)

^they had moms of children killed in battle and pearl harbor survivors. 

daron and i both almost popped a tear when they went by.  

after the parade, we headed back to where we set up camp on the golf course and stayed there the rest of the day enjoying our all-american activiites - flying kites, eating our weight in watermelon and junk food, playing frisbee and soccer, soaking in the fireworks, and enjoying lots of our favorite people.

^the best backdrop i've ever had on a 4th.

sailboats and flags everywhere!

^what's this!? these two are sharing!?

heart throb.

i had a great idea to bring face paint for the kids. i didn't realize it was going to be such a hit! we brought out the paint and the kids started swarming. my lovely sister-in-law, dayana, stepped in like a champ (carter was having a very fussy 15 min because all he wanted to do was turn the paints upside down) and painted all of the sweet little kids' faces.

^this was a classic moment.

dayana is from colombia and has not been in the US for even a year!

she is still trying to learn english which causes for some really great moments.

anyway, one of the boys asked her to draw a "football." so dayana started drawing a soccer ball on the boy's cheek. the boy started panicking and yelled out, "what are you doing!?" dayana realized he was talking about an american football and panicked herself because she had no idea what an american football looked like. this is her yelling to me, "dani bree! what does a football look like!?" thankfully the boy's dad came to the rescue with a picture on his phone. good times. i love you dayana!

^seriously though, how cute is my niece?

she's a smart little cookie too.

^it was this sweet boy's birthday. 

he was teething and had a terrible fever.

i've never seen a baby cuddle on their mama so much. 

but no matter what, every time you said, 
"happy birthday lorenzo!" 
he would get a ginormous grin on his face.

i couldn't believe it. 

babies totally know when it's their birthdays.

^my goofball brother that makes the best faces you will ever see.

i mean it.

i usually have to take about 3 pictures before i get a normal one.

^this view though...

right!? so dreamy...

the fireworks were amazing. from where we were, we could see 5 different firework shows. they made a perfect circle around us. they gave me the chills. and to make it even better, carter loved them. it was 1 trillion times better than last year when i thought his body was going to explode he was so terrified of them. 

my family decided to be lame and pack up and leave before the finale. luckily, an amazing thing happened. daron and i ended up being on the coronado bridge during the finale. everyone in their cars was trying to drive while watching the amazing display. finally, everyone just stopped where they were and the entire bridge of cars watched the finale together. 

it was awesome.

i love the 4th

america

and freedom.

happy 4th!