Boom Boom!

Hi all! I know it's been a while since my last post... one would think with the summer off I'd have more time, but really it's just a matter of my time being used up in new ways. Admittedly, I am far more exhausted at the end of a day with my little stinker than I was all year after a day's work at school. She certainly keeps me busy (and curtails any chances I have of keeping up with housework).

We had a wonderful 4th of July with just our "own selves," hanging out at home and keeping cool. The night before, the 3rd, we went to my sister's house in Roanoke to watch the city fireworks display. She has a great view from her backyard - they shoot them off from a field right across the street. Every year it seems this party gets bigger and bigger. By the end of the night, Shannon had over 100 guests at her house. Good thing her yard is ginormous.

As expected, Lyla loved the fireworks. I prepped her the day before by showing her some fireworks shows on YouTube. Yes, I am a dork that has been trained in preparing students for situations that might cause some anxiety... so these sorts of things come to mind a lot. I think she would have been fine even without the prep, though, as she simply sat back and watched, saying, "Boom!" and, "Noisy" every so often, with a bouncy nod of finality. That lasted only about 3 minutes... then she was ready to run off and play despite the noise and lack of sunlight. Baby attention span = not so long.

We were so glad to spend the evening with our closest friends and even got see a special visitor from out of town. Lisa and Jake were down for the weekend with Elizabeth - she has grown so tall (although our 6-month younger monster outweighs her!) and beautiful. It was wonderful to see them!

Mary Jo and family, Kerry and Craig, Mac and Kristin, and Melissa and Haydrienne came, too, and we had a blast eating hotdogs and partaking in cool beverages while waiting for it to get dark. The show wasn't too bad, either!