Watery Fourth

So it was a really wet day.  It rained for most of this Fourth of July, which actually dampened a lot of people's plans, of course.  Despite the cancelled fireworks presentations, a lot of our neighbors were shooting off fireworks left and right.  You could see some of them being launched from our window, in fact, late into the night.  It wasn't as thunderous a night as it sometimes is - the night of the Fourth is always a loud one, as fireworks rumble across the land.  A visitor unaware might mistake it for an invasion of sorts, or some looming storm system battering the region.

This morning there was a break in the rain though, and we made the best of it.  It was actually drizzling a bit to begin with, but by the time we got to the pool, the rain had stopped!  It was really overcast, and the pool was deserted - but the water was warm, and Nana and Madison had a great time swimming about together.  Daddy jumped in too, but not before taking this photo here.

As you can see, she's getting more and more comfortable in the water. She still has her floaties on, of course.  But the goal is to have her swimming without them by the end of the summer.  To accomplish this feat, we'll be at the pool a lot from this point on, nearly every day if we can manage.  Madison loves to swim - and so does Daddy for that matter.  It'll be fun, it'll be exercise, and it'll be teaching Madison to swim:  win, win, win.

The very first Fourth of July Daddy remembers involves a pool.  I believe I was Madison's age, or maybe one year older.  I just remember being at a KOA Campground in Montreal, Canada.  Of all the places to remember a Fourth of July, right?  We were with our grandparents, traveling northward in our camper, and seeing the sights.  Children still ran around with sparklers, and I remember the faint sound of firecrackers.  Perhaps these were from fellow American campers.  Anyway, that's digging way back into the memory banks a bit.

When we got back from the pool, the rain started again.  Remember when we were playing golf, and just as we finished, the rain started?  Yes, it's that kind of week, where we've had favor in our activities.  The funny thing was that Daddy put the grill under the canopy outside, which partially blocked the rain - and there he sat, getting a shower and grilling burgers and hot dogs.  But they turned out good (we'll credit the moisture outside), and the family was able to enjoy a standard Fourth of July meal together, complete with corn, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans and more.

We enjoyed the cake left out in the rain too.  Although it didn't get too wet!

Daddy read a few more patriotic books with Madison, and we had a few of our patriotic CDs playing.  Daddy found one with marches on it, which Ba-Ba and Nana enjoyed.  Also there were our standard CDs of patriotic music from Disney and a neat one from Phil Driscoll.

When it started to get darker, the firecrackers started going off in the neighborhood, late into the night.  This is one night where you really don't mind it.  In fact, it would be odd to not hear that sound on a night like this.  Despite all the rain, people were determined to make the most of the day.  And that's how I feel we did ourselves, between a visit to the pool and a huge meal.  All the in-betweens were great too - games of "Go Fish" and conversations about times gone past.  Sadly, Nana and Ba-Ba's visit is only until about Friday - and the entire time it has been raining.  And cool too!  They were wearing their sweaters this morning as we all met in the living room.

The rain has somewhat limited us in what we were going to do, but I believe we'll be visiting them soon enough.  Besides, it really has been a pleasant week here.

Happy Fourth of July!