Nelson Family Blog: 4th of July 2016

Just like that, we are in July already, and man, has it been a doozy of a weekend. We have just been on the go the entire weekend around here, and I feel like I need a vacation from the Holiday.

It all started on Thursday evening with the Sip-N-Cycle. My co-worker, Kayla, is leaving and moving to Yankton, so a bunch of us from work got together and rented the Sip-N-Cycle. It was a really fun evening. We had the bike from 8-10pm, and it was a beautiful evening for it, and we had an absolute blast. We ended up going to Wiley's afterwards, so it was a pretty late evening when everything was said and done.

Friday was a bit of a recovery day. I ended up getting the day off from work (yay!!), so the kids went to daycare, and I had some napping time at home to recover from the downtown adventures. After I was caught up on sleep, I cleaned the house and did a little shopping. After picking the kids up from daycare, we met up with John downtown, and went to First Friday, which was some live music with some other activities going on. It was a gorgeous evening for it, and the kids did pretty well. There was a Black Hills State mascot there, and Elliott was obsessed with giving it high fives and waving to it. It was pretty cute. Eventually, the kids got kinda crabby, and we went home and put them to bed and finished the night with some Game of Thrones.

Saturday was another jam-packed day. We headed to Brookings at 9:00am for John to shoot some Senior Pictures of Katie. While they were doing that, I took the kids to the Children's Museum in town. The kids had an absolute blast. They just went from one activity to the next and loved every second of it. The only trouble was me trying to keep track of them both, by myself. There were a couple times where I really had to search for Emma to find her, and I wasn't super impressed with that. But Emma loved it, and she keeps asking when we can go back again :)

After the museum, we had some lunch in town, and then we headed out to the Brookings Nature Park. It was another beautiful day to be out there, but the kids were getting tired and there wasn't much for them to do there, besides splash in the late, so we headed home around 3pm, and spent the rest of the evening just settling in at home and called it a day.

Sunday started off with church, and then naps for everyone. After napping, we headed out to Lake Vermillion. Again, it was a perfect day to be outside and just enjoying the weather. The high was 78 and there was a nice breeze. The kids really enjoyed swimming in the lake (even though it was pretty green and chunky) and they really enjoyed the playground and the overall experience. I really like the day camping, you get to do all the fun camping stuff, but you get to just go home and put your kids in their own beds at the end of the day. It was perfect. John and I watched some fireworks, and then some Game of Thrones and called it a night.

Today was really fun, but really busy again. We started off the day in Lennox for the 4th of July parade and the kids really enjoyed it. Elliott really loved watching it, and did really well with staying off the street and listening to us. Emma was super excited, and loved getting candy. The highlight of the parade for Emma was candy and the horses. Also, both kids were dancing up a storm whenever there was some music playing, it was pretty adorable.

After the parade, we checked out the park in Lennox where they have vendors selling food and crafts, but it was just too busy for us, so we headed to Tea to the B&G and had lunch, and then let the kids play in the big park there. After some well-deserved naps at home, we set up the kiddie pool, and slip-n-slide and just let the kids play. We also headed over to the neighbors for a while to watch some little fireworks and let the kids do sparklers. They really enjoyed that.

Now, Elliott is happily passed out in his crib and Emma is watching a little Netflix before bed. She's tired, but she wont' admit it. I have not problem admitting it, I am beat, and I can't wait to go to sleep. I am not looking forward to my 5:30am shift in the morning. Yuck! But, I do get to play softball tomorrow evening, so that almost makes up for it.

Anyway, Happy 4th of July, and I will leave you with a bunch of photos :)