Fourth of July is definitely one of my top three favorite Holidays. Its up there with Christmas and Halloween. Even though we've lived in North Carolina for the last three 4th of July's, this was the first year we stayed home. Our first year in NC we actually went up to Pennsylvania to spend time with my Grandma and Grandpa. We ended up going to the Annual Philly 4th of July Jam.
The second year we weren't even in the United States. We spent the holiday in Bolivia celebrating my birth country!
To be honest, part of me wanted to avoid the holiday all together because my best 4th of July memories are the ones spent in Utah. Fourth of July in Provo, UT is like a 3 day celebration. From daily cookouts, camping out on the parade route, the hot air balloon fest, the all night July 3rd party, the carnival, the Grand Parade, Stadium of Fire and this list can go on and on. My family always goes big on the fourth and it's been kinda tough seeing their 4th of July pictures on social media the last few years so Daniel and I were determined to have our own celebration.
Our celebration started off with a pre 4th of July party on our deck with our amazing PA friends!
We originally wanted to do a cookout with hot dogs and hamburgs (America af) but we realized we didn't have a grill... So Daniel made Mexican Quinoa! The funny thing was our friends all ended up bringing Mexican sides as well! We had delicious quesadillas, chips & dip, we even had elote (Mexican corn on the cob) but we had so much food that it never got taken out of the fridge. We kept laughing because we had the most Mexican fourth of July! haha it was wonderful. Donal Trump would have been so offended if he came.
Milo loved all the attention. This picture though.... (brb, heart melting)
After food and fun on the deck, we started the fireworks. This was the first year Daniel and I bought our own fireworks and boy are they expensive! We're also selectively cheap sooooo...
We had way too much fun and took lots of silly pictures.
The next day was just as magical! It started with a pancake breakfast with all our church friends (giant water slide included).
Sweet little Belle really wanted to go down the slide but Marie and Isaiah weren't wearing their swimsuits. After a little bribing, Daniel agreed to go down the slide for $20. I figure we share all our money so I was game! I tried to recruit other babies he could take down the slide (Its all about the ROI). Ultimately my 6'4" was too scary and baby AB didn't want to go down with him. Haha!
It was so good spending time with friends!
Later in the day, we went on a family hike.
The hike eventually took us to a huge swimming hole. We weren't wearing our swimming suits but we HAD to get in. The water felt so good. Milo even got in! I mean, he hated every second of it but he was a great swimmer!
That evening, we found ourselves in Chapel Hill at the UNC football stadium for an amazing firework show. It was seriously one of the best ones I've ever seen! There was music, the whole arena had glow sticks and it was just magical! It was a perfect ending to a wonderful 4th of July!
Even though we're far from family and traditions that we're used to, it was so fun making new memories!
Especially with this being Milo's first 4th of July with us!
I hope all of you had magical weekends as well!
Xo - Andie
