Fourth of July weekend

We enjoyed a very relaxing, fun filled weekend! The weather could not have been more beautiful for the holiday weekend, allowing us to spend endless hours outside after a couple sweltering hot days. Last Thursday and Friday reached high 90s and 100 degree temps here in Iowa City. Sean and I even enjoyed a night out Saturday night with some friends downtown Iowa City. It was so great to get out and enjoy a summer night downtown Iowa City. The summers are the greatest here and we were thrilled to be able to enjoy a night out, great dinner, a little jazz music, and wonderful company! I captured our weekend in pictures below...Sean and I are both taking a couple of days off this week to spend sometime with Luke, and just plan old enjoy some downtime with our family of three before it becomes four! We hope to take Luke to a water park Thursday and possibly the zoo one day. July marks a very exciting month for our family as we will be making a special trip to the Northwest in just a few short weeks to help celebrate the wedding of my older brother. My family has rented a mountain house and we plan to spend five days out there to enjoy all the festivities and truly enjoy the wedding celebration of Nate and Debbie!

Saturday morning after Sean made his special weekend breakfast, we packed up and headed out to the beautiful Lake McBride. We had attempted this once before and it went horribly, so we weren't real sure how Luke would do this time around. It went much better, but he still got pretty antsy on the boat wanting to go overboard to see the "bish".
Luke loved waving to all the boaters! Lake McBride is a beautiful lake just a few miles from our house that only allows small horse powered boats on it, so it makes for a very peaceful, calm, relaxing boat ride.

We made a little pit stop and let Luke swim at the beach. After we played for awhile Luke enjoyed his little sack lunch on the boat ride back to the dock. It was time for lunch, but it also worked great because it occupied most of his time from trying to catch "bish" off the side of the boat!

Luke, in his swim diaper, watching daddy mow the lawn. After a long afternoon nap, Luke enjoyed a little swim in his pool.

Time for a "nack"! Luke enjoying a mouthful of grapes.

Monday morning, we headed downtown Coralville with our friends, The Tracy's, to watch the 4th of July parade. It was a great morning, we just failed to find a shade tree so it got pretty warm! We shaded Luke as best as we could in his stroller while he watched the fire trucks, horses, and tractors stroll by.

Our son has started to want to dress himself! This was Luke Monday morning after breakfast, still in his pj's, but ready to go outside and play with daddy! He brought his sandals and hat to Sean after we finished up breakfast, all ready to play! You may notice, he has a little sticker on his pjs...while I hopped in the shower the boys were outside playing. A police man had driven through our neighborhood and stopped to say hi to Luke because Luke, being his outgoing, friendly little self was waving "Hi". He pulled up, turned on his lights, and gave Luke a "Junior Officer" sticker badge! I love his outgoing personality, resembled by his morning colorful collection!

This is Luke saying "cheese"

...and again
For some reason he waves his hands when I ask him to say Cheese for the camera.

Luke and Uncle Mitch horsing around after our 4th of July BBQ

We hosted a very informal BBQ at our house Monday afternoon, my brother Mitch also joined us. We decided late Friday to invite some neighbors and friends over for a little BBQ and give the kids a chance to run in the sprinkler, play in the pool, and eat messy popsicles. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we enjoyed great company, lots of food, and some cold drinks! (well most everyone, with the exception of a couple pregnant ladies!) I am bummed, I didn't get any pictures of all the little kiddos running crazy. I even laid my camera out, but got so sidetracked I didn't even snap a picture.

After all our company left we put Luke in his pajamas and headed out for the fireworks downtown Coralville. Sean and I were able to view the Iowa City display from our deck Sunday evening, which was so enjoyable to relax on the beautiful evening and watch a fabulous fireworks display. Sean really wanted Luke to experience the fireworks so we thought, what the heck, let's give it a shot. It was already passed his bedtime and for the most part Luke is pretty flexible. So we headed out, made a pit stop for ice cream, and found a parking spot near the Coralville Park, rolled down the windows and we were ready for the show.

Our outgoing little Luke, waving out the window and saying "hi" to all the people going by

Sorry for the quality of this picture taken from my phone, but it is so sweet to see my two boys all snuggled up watching the fireworks. Luke was enamored by the bright, colorful show of fireworks, cheering and saying "boom, boom, boom"! He lasted about 10 minutes before he grabbed his snuggles, crawled into my arms, and fell sound asleep in the midst of the load fireworks display. He was one tired little boy from a very fun filled weekend! As busy as Luke keeps us running, he fills every minute of our days with indesribeable joy! It is so fun watching him grow, learn, and mostly find joy is the simple little things in life.