A Bang-em Up Weekend... July 04, 2008

Happy 4th of July!  In true Parker style we have been celebrating and doing fun things all weekend long, which for us started Thursday afternoon when Chris got off work early. 

3rd of July:

Thursday afternoon we took Noah to go see the new Disney/Pixar movie Wall-e.  It seemed like the perfect way to start the weekend.  We loaded up, literally.  I'm an honest person, but I just can't help myself when it comes to smuggling treats into the movie theater in my purse.  Call me cheap, or that it's fun to feel sneaky...I don't know.  So, we got to the theater in time to have a bit of time to get settled before the previews started.  I could tell Noah felt like such a big boy because we let him hold his own ticket, give it to the ticket taker guy, carry his own booster seat, and choose where we sat.  It was really fun to watch him.  He loved the previews.  He sat so still in his little chair with his big, bright eyes watching every trailer.  After a few, he asked for the "popencorn".  (I guess he knows about movie popcorn because we brought him home a bag of our leftovers last week when Chris and I went on a movie date and Chris and he shared some at Horton Hears a Who.)  We had hoped to save my loaded purse full of treats for a little later on, but oh well.  Out they came.  Before too long, his M&Ms were gone and the traditional "Short" cartoon that Disney always plays before the real feature started.  He started to get a little antsy.  We decided to pull out the big guns and spring for some popcorn.  Then the real movie started and Noah sat on my lap sharing popcorn with me and contentedly watching the movie...for about 10 minutes.  I was starting to get bored.  Noah was too, and he was starting to want to explore.  For all of you with toddler age kids, Wall-e is not the movie for you.  There is hardly any talking at all through the whole movie, at least in the first 45 minutes or so there isn't.  I wouldn't know about the rest because we didn't make it that long.  After Noah had gone up and down the stairs, had started running (squealing with laughter as he went because he knew he was being a bit naughty) down the dark hall inside the theater, and had found out he was strong enough to push the door open and escape, we decided we were through.  He didn't get Wall-e.  No one talked.  The robot's expressions were too subtle for him to get, so it was just like watching a robot run around beeping for 45 minutes...no wonder he was bored!

It was still fun, though.  Friday, turned out to be a whole lot more fun. 

4th of July:

We continued our tradition of going to Provo's Freedom Festival Hot Air Balloon Launch.  We woke up at 5 am and put Noah, still jammied up, in the van.  We had told him last night we were going to go see the balloons in the morning and showed him pictures of what it was going to be like.  It was all he could do to fall asleep, he was so excited.  So when he woke up just enough to be groggy instead of completly out, he remembered we were going to see the balloons and that's why we must've been getting in the car when it was still nighttime.  He thought it was the middle of the night, he even pointed to his friends' house and told us "Connor still sleeping.".  Noah was all for it though, if it meant that he was going to get to "see duh duh balloons."  We had a great time, but darn it!  We forgot our camera.  Noah's favorite balloon was the great big pink piggy shaped one.  His other favorite was when we were driving around a bit afterwards when the balloons were all choosing where to land and one landed just off the sidewalk next to us.  The balloonists pick-up van wasn't there yet, and the pilot needed some help so we all climbed out and Noah got to watch Daddy help.  I think that was his favorite part of the whole morning.  He just looked at them with awe.

Then it was off to Laura's family's breakfast.  It was at Krista's condo again and it was lots of fun.  Two of Laura's Aunts and Uncles were there, a few of her cousins with their kids, her almost 95 year old Grandpa, and Heidi and Krista were there with their families' too.  Even Grandma and Grandpa Buckholts were there and Grandma just had surgery on her knee less than a week ago.  The kids had fun running around together, playing on the swings, and Noah actually ate a ton of food for breakfast.  Who knew he liked sausage links so much?

Later in the day we headed over to Layton Park to meet Chris' side of the family for a picnic and fireworks.  The kids played on one of the playgrounds for a while, then we tried to keep them off the football stadium bleachers, then we tried to keep them from underneath the bleachers, then they played on the field, and we all had lots of fun.  We ate way too much junk food thanks to Grandma Parker, Aunt Norma, and the Burger Stop that was easy to get to through the fence.  Probably the highlights of the whole night for Noah, aside from just getting to play with so many fun cousins, were all of the fun things Aunt Desi brought to entertain the kids.  She's always doing fun, festive things with her kids.  They brought homemade piñatas to play with and they were a big hit.  When it got dark they passed out glow sticks and Noah thought those were the coolest.  When the fireworks started Noah snuggled with me for about one minute and then he was off my lap to be a "big kid" and find his cousin friends.  Noah so much loves his eight year old cousin Makayla.  He wanted to snuggle with her the entire time the fireworks were going off.  She likes Noah, but wasn't crazy about him crawling all over her so she kept escaping from him and Noah kept tracking her down.  Once or twice she ended up escaping to Grandma's lap and Noah crawled on top of both of them.  It was funny.

Noah kept telling me all night long that he was a "big kid".  Normally this announcement proceeded him trying to do something he shouldn't be doing that the other kids were doing like climbing on a tractor.  I let him and his cousins have fun on the tractor until the police officer nicely told me it was off limits.

July 5th:

Whoo-whooooo!  All aboard!  We took Noah to ride on the S&S Shortline railroad again today.  He calls it the "tiny choo-choo".  Mommy got to ride with him while Daddy took some pictures.  He loved every second of it.