4th of July

We had a super fun 4th of July yesterday. We started with a parade downtown with a bunch of friends.

After going home for lunch and naps we had a surprise for the kids. We hopped in the car and started driving without telling the kids where we were going. We pulled up to our hotel and the kids started putting things together. We had booked a hotel for the night in downtown Albany. It was really close to where they shoot off the downtown fireworks and we had a room that we could see them from. So we went out for dinner and then had a swim, put on pj's and people watched from our hotel window while we waited for the fireworks to start.

Sorry for the really crummy cell phone picture, but we forgot the camera and it was dark.

It was SO great to be in a hotel. We were able to put L to bed and avoid the mosquitoes, humidity and crowds of the 4th of July. We just sat in our room, in our pj's, and oohed and aahed at the spectacular show. It was a good 45 min long, and it started really late, so it was well after 10:00 when it was over and the kids just jumped into bed and were asleep within 15 minutes. No fighting the crowds to get back to our car, or fighting traffic to get home.

This morning we got up and got breakfast then went for another swim and headed home. We had a great time! It might have to be a new 4th of July tradition for us!