My little firecracker on the 4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. The managers at work let everyone leave an hour early, so I didn't have to take vacation time to get out of town early. Amanda & I hit the road about 3pm, after I put her into pullups for the 2-hr trip to the farm. She had no problem, except the constant, "Are we there yet?" "No" "Why not?" (wait 10 minutes, repeat) She made the whole trip without even saying she had to go potty, and was dry when we arrived, so it was definitely the abundance of water that did in our return trip from Lincoln.

She was excited to see Grandpa and Babushka, and Aunts Barb & Cindy. and everyone made a fuss over her (and fake-fussed over me since I fake-pretended to be put out at being ignored for the cute 4-yr-old). We explored the house a bit, and met Mom & Dad's new dog, Rusty (looks like their first dog, Shep, which is what Mom keeps calling him). Mom & Dad have a merry-go-round on the farm, and Amanda enjoyed that a lot. After awhile, we headed over to my cousin's place for his 50th birthday party. A few more members of the family got to meet Amanda, and my nephew & niece, Aaron & Shayla, were great, playing with Amanda and keeping her entertained and yet out of trouble on the farm. She got her first up-close visit with some calves and even got to touch a nose or two (and I got a refresher course in barn smells). After washing the calf slobber off my hand, I got to kick back with a beer and some great food and chat with relatives and friends from town. The weather was perfect for a party on the farm, with kids and dogs running around having a great time.

I took Aaron & Shayla home, said hi to Aunt Cheryl and her daughter Nikki, and got to meet their horse, Winter (another up-close first encounter for Amanda) and they also had lots of cats and kitties for Amanda to chase after. Oh, and a trampoline, too! Lots of firsts for missy this weekend. Mom & Dad & I played cards for awhile and I got to bed about 11:30 - too late! We got up at 7:15 (thanks to Mom's wake up call) and went into Hoskins for an 8am parade. 8am! Early for a parade, yes? They had a breakfast after as a fundraiser for the fire department, so I guess if you want people to attend a breakfast, you don't have it too late; hence, an early parade. The weather continued to be great, and Amanda enjoyed her first parade. Someone described it as the world's shortest parade with the most candy. She and Shayla raced around for candy, almost seeming to compete until you saw them share with each other after each round was picked up. It was neat to see them be so generous. After breakfast, we headed to the kiddie games at the park, taking an inadvertant detour by going to the playground instead of the "park". (Hoskins has a park? Since when? What do you mean, north of town - north of town is out of town!) Turns out we have a new park, donated by a guy in his wife's memory. No playground equipment, but a nice spot for the kiddie games. AAA and Faith Regional Hospital (Norfolk) donated bike helmets, so I got a free helmet for Amanda, which thrilled me as I had just ordered a pedal-less bike for her (see parkracer.com or look up skuut). It's the cutest blue helmet, and she loved it, wearing it most of the weekend, even in the car on the way home for part of the time. The kiddie games were kind of fun, with the usual trinkets and some nice prizes. Amanda picked what you would expect - a ring here, a flower "tattoo" there, but at the last game, she ignored the little teddy bear and picked out a brown UPS watch! Not expected. Shayla won the little teddy bear, and then another, but instead of picking the twin bear, she put it back and got a football for Aaron. Pretty neat.
We took Aaron & Shayla home and looked for my brother but he wasn't around, so Mom, Dad & I went back to their house. Amanda played upstairs with Mom's dolls, carrying various things downstairs and asking, "Is this mine, Babushka?" I could understand the old phone (by old, I mean plug-in type), but when she carried down a bed-side lamp (which had been unplugged) I drew the line. I jokingly asked, "Babushka, is this bed mine? Can I have this dresser?" Mom turned to Amanda and said, "Amanda, everything in this house is yours" with a sweeping gesture. Big help, Mom!

Soon, there was a doorbell, and Shayla was there in long pants and work boots. She and her dad had ridden Winter over from their house (1/2 mile). Amanda got to meet her uncle and have her first horse ride! It was awesome!! First, Mike put her in front of him and rode around a bit (she wanted down within 2 minutes), then Shayla showed us her horsemanship (Why are you riding under that pine tree, Shayla? What do you mean, the horse took you there - who's driving, again??) It was her first time soloing with Winter out of the pen, so she really did quite well. Amanda wanted to sit with Shayla, so we put her up there for pictures, then Mike lead the girls all around the farm, going up some banks (Shayla saying "No" and Amanda saying "Do it again!"). Mike seemed very taken with Amanda, and I'm glad he finally got to meet her. They headed back home and we had lunch, then we said goodbye to Grandpa and Babushka (Amanda started working on "Grandma" but when she tried that instead of Babushka, she usually ended up calling Mom "Grandpa".) We stopped over at Mike & Cheryl's to say a final goodbye to them, and then hit the road back to Omaha. ("Are we there yet?")
Amanda got quite unhappy at being stuck in her seat for so long, and as I got closer to Omaha I realized it was a perfect opportunity to stop in Valley to see my cousin's new digs. Lloyd recently became the pastor for St. John's church and just moved into the parsonage. I called and got the green light to stop by. It was great to see where he's living now, and great to have the potty stop. Lloyd's friend Betty was there, along with her son Matt's family, so Amanda got to play with little Natalie again (they'd met at Lloyd's farewell from his last parish June 2nd (also a celebration of the 30th anniversary of his ordination), which I forgot to even mention in my blog. I blogged about her baby-sitter terrorizing and forgot to mention what we did that Sunday).

We headed home after picking up some supper at KFC, then I loaded blankets, chairs, books and various things into the car and we headed to Ralston (72 & L) to find a spot to watch their fireworks. I'd called a friend from Ralston to get suggestions on where to sit and she recommended we park in the Lamb of God parking lot. They are a new Lutheran church, renting space in a strip mall type area. I found the parking lot and discovered they had a band and free food (too bad we'd just eaten). Background info: I was one of a group of Lutherans who had left my Omaha church home years ago due to dangerous theology being preached by a new pastor (and due to elders who put blinders on), and some of that group ended up starting Lamb of God. I thought I might find some old friends, and the first person I encountered was one of that group, Jon. He said we could sit by him and his wife, and he proceeded to have the best time with Amanda. She enjoys joking around with guys, and he was wonderful with her. He was taking pictures of the band and the crowd, and I think he took about a hundred pictures of her. If he left his chair to go take pictures or whatever, Amanda would get all bothered - "Where'd he go?" (or, truth be told, most often "Where'd she go?" - she has trouble with pronouns. At least she no longer says "Where is it?"when referring to people, which was what she would say in April when we had a teenager stay with us for a weekend of foster care respite)

We had some of the cookies and watermelon that was also being offered by the church, and Amanda had her first push-it-up-the-plastic popsicle. She wasn't 100% successful with her first one, losing the last third to the ground, but Jon's wife Deb was making the second round offering popsicles to the crowd, so she got a replacement. All night she kept asking for food and candy and popsicles. The fireworks started just before 10pm, and someone had their car stereo tuned to the synced radio station, which always makes it so much better. Amanda was being quite fidgety and was sometimes more interested in fussing with the blanket than watching the fireworks, so I played the heavy and told her she could either lay down and go to sleep, or watch the fireworks with me! She picked the fireworks. (They're over so fast, I really didn't want her to miss any.) I have to admit that I teared up while listening to Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" and holding this little girl on her first Independence Day. The fireworks were just awesome, and the music put it over the top.

Another great aspect to hangin' with the Lutherans was that they had their church facilities open for people to use the bathroom! After the fireworks were over, I packed us up and we headed to the car, where I thought we could just sit and wait for traffic to go down. But, better idea - let's take a potty stop while we wait. Jon and Deb were sitting at a table talking to some other folks, so we had to stop and give Amanda more time joking with him and charming everyone within a 10-foot radius (while wearing her bike helmet, of course).

And all of this before the weekend even arrived! Saturday, we played it low key and just hung around the house, going to the playground and a late trip to the grocery store. On the way back from the store, I passed a neighbor's house and had to stop while a firework finished firing. It wasn't very impressive, and I joked to him that it wasn't worth waiting for. He invited us over about 9pm when they were planning to shoot off the larger ones, so after putting the groceries away and having a snack of some grapes, we walked over with a blanket and enjoyed a smaller-scale show. They had a blanket where three little boys were lined up, and I sat Amanda next to them. She had fun echoing some of their exclamations ("That was AWESOME!", etc.) I didn't know anyone except Tony, who was busy putting the fireworks out, and his son Dominic (one of the three little boys). I wasn't sure who in the crowd was his wife, or what her name is (I met her once, many months ago), or which one of the little girls was his daughter, Delaney, but at the end of the evening, I thanked a few people generically and directly thanked a gal who I hope was his wife.

Sunday, after church we had a low-key day at the house again, walking to the playground, doing some finger-painting, etc.

Monday - back to school/work. Amanda: Yea! Me: yea....

More pics, just for fun:

This next picture just makes me laugh. Did I mention there was a lot of free food? Yes, we're eating again and we're just fine with that.

Must get the last drop of the popsicle!