4th of July Activities

This holiday weekend has been really great. We are still getting used to the fact that we actually get to spend long weekends together now that Scott has changed jobs. It's been weird to have three family days in a row (and we still have tomorrow to make four). Our activities actually started on Wednesday. Normally we would have gone to Red, White, and Boom on the 3rd, but Scott had to work and he didn't want Zoey and I to go downtown without him, so we skipped it this year. I was pretty bummed about it, but we made up for it by taking Zoey for her first trip to the drive in.

Scott and I used to love to go the the drive in when we lived in PA, so we were excited when we found one in Columbus. However, we hadn't had an opportunity to go since Zoey was too little. I figured that she might be old enough now, so we gave it a shot. They were playing Despicable Me 2 and Monster University, so I figured those would be good movies for Zo. This drive in was way different from out beloved one in PA (technically it's in Ohio, but I refer to it as PA since it was just over the border). First off, we got there and there was a line of cars waiting to get in. I don't think that ever happened at the old one. It was normally pretty empty. The second, and probably most significant difference was the concession stand. Our old drive in seriously had the best food. This one pretty much had popcorn, fries, pizza (that was not very good), nachos, hot dogs, and soft pretzels. We went to the drive in expecting food like we used to get, so we didn't eat dinner ... big mistake.

As far as the actual drive in experience goes it was fair. We only made it through Despicable Me. It was raining so it was difficult to see the screen and it also made it so we couldn't roll the windows down. Without the windows down, it got really hot in the car and Zoey was sweating like crazy even after I changed her out of her pjs that were way too warm. Despicable Me was pretty cute. It wasn't quite as good as the first one, but overall it was pretty funny.

Zoey enjoying some fries

For the actual 4th of July, we had my sister and nephew over for a BBQ (or cookout as I'm told it is referred to in Ohio because BBQ is what you eat). Zoey and I had a special MDBD and made Red White and Blue sandwich cookies (blog post here). On the menu was burgers (which didn't work for some reason and ended up crumbled on a plate), hot dogs, brats, broccoli salad (provided by Tia), chips, and desert skewers (also provided by Tia).

Enjoying a special edition of MDBD

Love my baby girl

Yummy!!!!

I love her outfit. Her skirt was given to her by her God parents, the Rotunas

Zoey loves playing with her Aunt Tia :)

After Tia and Trey left, we took Zoey outside to do some poppers. I was hoping to get Zoey some fireworks like we used to set off when I was little. However, Ohio has the strictest firework laws in the nation and all you can legally set off are snaps, snakes, smoke bombs, and sparklers. No tanks or spinning color things. Zoey still seemed to enjoy the snaps (aka poppers).

Originally we had planned on going to the Westerville fireworks, but given the fact we had been out super late the night before at the drive in we decided we didn't want to risk getting there and then Zoey having a rough night. We also kind of figured she would get to see lots of fireworks when we go to Disney. However, we did let her stay up to see if we could see the city's fireworks from our house. Turns our one of our neighbors puts on a pretty good firework show, so around 9:00 we went out and watched fireworks from our driveway. At first, Zoey wanted nothing to do with it and ran to the door when the first one went off. However, we got her little car out and let her sit in that to watch them. That seemed to help and a couple times she honked her horn and clapped.

On Friday we decided to have a zoo day. I figured that with the rain there wouldn't be too many people there. I was wrong. It wasn't terribly crowded, but way more than I thought it would be. We didn't stay for too long. That's the nice thing about having a membership, you don't feel compelled to stay for long if it's a kind of off day. After we left the zoo, we made a quick trip to Sears to pick up some stuff, and then went to lunch.We got home late in the afternoon and way past Zo's nap time. However, she apparently decided she didn't need a nap, because she destroyed her bedroom before crashing. LOL!

Rainy zoo day

Today and tomorrow are lazy days. If we get any sun, I might try to take Zoey to the park, but it will be overall a low key day. Have to unwind and get ready for the week to start on Monday.