Long Weekend & Jay's 1st 4th of July

This past weekend has been a busy one for sure!

Ketchup bottles are yummy!

On Thursday we dropped Jay off with a suitcase of his own at my parent's house as had a mommy and daddy getaway for a few days up in the Twin Cities area as my childhood best friend was getting married on Friday. Gotta admit, waking up Friday morning without my snuggle buddy to snuggle with was a bit weird, not to mention my body's used to him as my alarm clock most days!

The wedding wasn't until the evening so we had the whole afternoon to kill and ventured out for a bit and made a stop at the Mall of America, where hubby had never been before! We need to make a trip up there when Jay's a little older as I recall the aquarium being really neat, he'd be in awe of the mini-Legoland and of course the indoor Nicktoons theme park (which by the way, I was disappointed to learn that it's no longer Camp Snoopy but now it's Nicktoons Universe! Booo!!).

The wedding was in downtown Minneapolis at the Mill City Museum and we drove right past the Metrodome - home of the Minnesota Vikings - in which its roof caved in last winter from so much snow! It looked still under-construction too. The wedding was really beautiful and her dress definitely looked like it was made for her as it looked so pretty on her! The ceremony was outside in the courtyard ruins, unfortunately it did rain a little bit for the last 5 minutes or so, but fortunately it didn't pour until later in the night when we were having the reception dinner inside. It was nice to get to see her family again too - her oldest brother I hadn't seen in nearly 20 years, when he left for college! Her parents still live just a few streets over from my parents, so I've occasionally seen her mom out walking but it was nice to get a chance to chat with them, even for a brief minute or so! I'm glad we went!

It was nice to get away with just hubby, but I did start missing Jay and was looking forward to picking him up. He had a big grin on his face when we went to get him and he 1st saw us though! Mom said he did fine, save for when his gums started hurting, but he was all happy to see us again and spent most of the evening snuggling with me.

Sunday night we had a cookout out just us 3. The neighbors next door were having people over too, including one of the neighbors that used to live behind our house (he stopped over to collect a ball that had gone over our fence, and commented how he was so used to the property being vacant for so long!). Hubby had purchased some fireworks stuff when he was up in Janesville for work last week and lit about half of them off. Jay did okay with the ones that just made lots of lights, but he didn't like the ones that made high-pitched screeching noises at all! The neighbors had stuff they were lighting off too so we were taking turns, lol... they had one they lit for the grand finale which lasted about 2 minutes, but including the screeching ones, which freaked Jay out so we had to take him inside, as he got too scared!

Little Mr. 4th of July!

Watching fireworks with daddy

Monday was the 4th of July and Jay's 5 month birthday! Hubby and I both got stuck working. Hubby and Jay had a cookout with my family while I joined up with them after work and ate what was left. We joined my mom and cousin and went downtown to the same spot we sat last year for the fireworks. Jay started fussing in the car for no apparent reason and daddy carried him while we walked downtown which seemed to keep him calm. For the most part he sat and actually watched the fireworks, only getting upset twice. The first time was when the stupid girls wheeling a cart of glow-in-the-dark stuff caused a pedestrian traffic jam right behind us and I think someone bumped Jay trying to get passed, as he started crying out of nowhere. He settled down a few minutes later though and continued to watch (and grab daddy's face as the lights were making his face light up, lol...) until the last 10 seconds when the grand finale occurred, with the fireworks shooting off constantly - it scared him and he started freaking out so I held him to me with my hand covering his outside ear as he buried his face into my chest. He was fine and all smiles after it stopped! LOL...

I'd say Jay's 1st 4th of July went pretty well!