Yep, I'm still finishing up the pictures from the 4th of July, I'm only 4 months behind. Wow it seems like so much longer ago than that! Our good friends Dale and Linda (we miss you guys so much) invited us over to their new house for a barbecue. I'll have to captionize these pictures so we all know who is what and where.
This is Donny on the left and Dale on the right. Dale is a super actuary genius and I wanna be just like him when I grow up. We're so lucky to have such great friends, they made our time in Wisconsin hundreds of times better. We had a lot of fun at Dale and Linda's house, we're gonna miss those days of Wisconsin 4th of July barbecues.
Here's Dale's wife, Linda. We used to be coworkers back in the day. I'll never forget all the quality time I used to spend leaning up against Donny's desk at work, talking with him and Linda. Then Donny quit, then Linda quit and I was all alone. Except at the 4th of July party anyway. Dale and Linda had also invited a bunch of other friends of theirs with whom we got along very well. Zoe especially liked throwing snappy fireworks all around their deck. Why didn't any of these responsible adults stop her from this dangerous activity?
Perhaps nobody had time to stop Zoe because they were too busy lighting her on fire! This was the year of the sparklers, as Zoe went through enough of them to put her own little hole in the ozone layer. This may have been because we all enjoyed lighting a sparkler handing it to her, watching her run off in fear, come back, hold it and smile. Repeat. Celebrate the Independence of your country be blowing up a small piece of it.
Here's a picture of Zoe and Joey at the 4th of July parade. She loves that dog. Brookfiled throws a great parade down Calhoun road, this year we went with some our favorite families from the Ward. Man, I shouldn't be writing all this stuff, it really makes me miss our friends out in the mid-west. I just need to spend a few minutes remembering how much snow and -30 degree weather there was and I'll feel much better.
Our first Fourth of July in Milwaukee was a few days after Zoe was born, so the extent of our celebration was asking each other if we were going to survive until next year. Seriously, having a kid is a magical experience full of love and hope, but then you take the little bundle home and though the love is still there, it's partially covered in gross bodily fluids and 4 months of 4 a.m. feedings. But I digress, the point is that our first fourth was all but festive. The next, however, was the genesis of what I hope becomes a long-term tradition. The weekend before Independence Day the city of Milwaukee shoots off a bunch of fireworks over Lake Michigan, thus kicking off Summer Fest, the world's most expensive and musical crime scene. July 4th, 2008 we had a great time at the lake with Nathen, Jennifer and Annie and this year we reconnected with some old high school friends of mine that moved out to Milwaukee. We spent most of that forever-long pre firework evening time trying our best to not stop our children from falling into the lake. Is there anything better than a warm summer evening watching fireworks with friends and family? Now that we are Seattlites we're going to have to find another aquatic venue from which to watch the 4th o' July fireworks. I assume that since we are now on the coast such a thing will be possible. Check out this cool night time shot of downtown that Sara took on the way back to our car. She's a great picturer.
