Amelia's First Independence Day

Even though I am British and Independence Day or 4th July is a day when Americans celebrate chasing away the Brits, I love to join in the festivities. This year was extra special since it was Amelia's first 4th of July holiday, Grandma and Grandpa Rawe had bought her a special red, white and blue outfit for the occassion, and even better, it fell on a Friday which meant a lovely long weekend for Matthew and I.

The day started bright and early with 'Breakfast in the Park' with other members of our ward, it was a beautiful morning and it was nice to be together.

New play equipment has recently been added to the Park and so we put Amelia in one of the baby swings, at first she was a little nervous but after just a minute or so, began to laugh and really enjoyed it, perhaps because her little friend Addison was swinging right next to her.


After the breakfast, we ran to my friend Alice's house, it was her birthday, we took homemade sausage rolls for her to enjoy and after a quick hello, headed back home. When we arrived home Grandma and Grandpa Rawe were already there, ready to go to the Oregon Coast with us. We fed Amelia and off we went to the seaside.

It was quite cool at the coast, so we warmed up by shopping at the outlets. Of course, Amelia, who really didn't need any clothes, came home with many more outfits, I just couldn't resist jeans at $2.99, and tops at $1.99, I justified my purchases by buying many 12 month sized clothes which will be great for our visit to England in September. It's just so much fun buying things for her. After lots of shopping, we went to the Pig 'n' Pancake restaurant for a late lunch, I absolutely love their 'eggs benedict and hashbrowns'.

Next, we went to the beach, as I said earlier, it was a little cool but I wanted Amelia to feel the sand between her little toes anyway.

She was rather curious...

...and of course even tried to eat it, urgh!

After a little while, we went down to the ocean and dipped her feet in the cold water to wash off most of the sand...

afterwards, daddy wrapped her up tight in her blanket (and his jacket) to keep her warm and we posed for a little family photo.

Ever since Matthew proposed to me by writing in the sand, we always write something when we are on the beach, we decided to write Amelia's name today, the little scuff marks on the right hand side above the letter 'l, i and a' are her little foot prints.

We headed home and ate at the new Round Table Pizza (after all it was Friday, and the Rawe Tradition is Friday Night Pizza at Round Table.)

Family times are good times.

Amelia was tired out after a fun-packed day and caught up on some zzzz's while snuggling with her little dog, Max.

When we got home it was already dark, so we introduced Amelia to a few fireworks and sparklers.

Unfortunately the photo's are a little fuzzy, perhaps I will call them 'artistic'.

So, as you can see, all in all, it was a very long, but very fun, day.

Happy '4th' everybody