Independence Day

This was a rare holiday where Eddie was off for the entire day so we were able to fully enjoy the day. We decided to break from our usual 4th of July activities and have a family day with just the 4 of us (the 4th being Phantom).

This happened to be a day with the nicest weather we've had all summer since we had a front moving it, and it was nice a cool. We headed up to Mt. Charleston (along with everyone else in the world) to hike Mary Jane Falls. This is a strenuous trail (in my opinion) with varying degrees of an incline the whole way up. Of course 2 year old boys don't walk very far so Eddie carried 30 pound Nathan most of the way up to the falls. I'm too much of a wuss to carry Nate very far. We made it to the top (even slow poke Phantom) and cooled off by the trickling falls. We were surprised to find water this late in the year. Eddie carried Nate a good portion of the way down too. Needless to say we were all a bit tired by the end, but the weather was so nice that it was well worth it.

After a nice long nap (for Nate) and dinner we did some good old fashioned fireworks in front of our driveway. We haven't done these together ever since we always went to some sort of firework show and of course Nate had never done them before either. Some of the illegal fireworks some of the people around us were doing scared Nate some, but for the most part he enjoyed it. He was not a fan of sparklers, but he loved doing the little poppers that you throw on the ground.

Nate was good at picking out our next firework from the box.

Helping Daddy light fireworks.

Here is a video of Nate doing a sparkler. As you can see he is not thrilled and then eventually runs off because of other fireworks going off close by.

We had a fun day together as a family. I hope everyone had a good 4th of July.