Somewhere, there will be ice cream..

I have never been a huge fan of the Fourth of July. It is probably one of my least favorite holidays; don't call me un-American, but I really hate fireworks. I do enjoy however getting together with friends and family in celebration, and going to the parade. 

I love a parade. 

I have been going to our city's hometown parade since I was a wee little girl and there was no way I was not going to take my son this year, even if it was just for a short time, just to say he went on his very first Fourth. 

My family's motto is to travel fast and light ~ my dad was never the type to bring chairs or blankets for us to sit on during the parade. Nope, we just planted ourselves curbside and then we could skedaddle quickly when it was over without carrying a bunch of stuff and fighting the crowd. We could just stand up and go. I am not sure I will adopt this totally as W. gets older, but for this year, I chose to leave his stroller at home and to rely solely on the baby carrier. I loved it and so did he!

Granted sometimes it looked like I was just carrying a very utilitarian bag on the front of me because I am super paranoid about him getting sunburned so I used the hood whenever we were in direct sunlight, but I didn't care how it looked to other people. We were both comfortable and mobile. I have two Bobas ~ one is the one seen here, the Boba 4G and also the Boba wrap. This one is a bit more durable for big outings, at least in my opinion. We ended up walking most of the parade route, as little guy didn't like us to stand still for too long ~ must keep moving and all that!  I would rate our first parade a success! 

While we were downtown we popped into a local business, Glow Fish Studios. I loved that place! I wanted to buy everything in there. We also spent at least 20 minutes talking to the owners ~ they are so open and friendly! We really enjoyed our conversation with them. And of course I couldn't leave empty handed. I bought these super cute green rabbit earrings by Dreamspirit ~ I love rabbits and couldn't resist. There is also a fox necklace there that I have my eye on...

Billy and I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather, it has been so rainy this summer, so we also went on a little excursion to Lower Huron Metropark. We are big supporters of our Metroparks, and we had never visited Lower Huron. It was a nice drive, and we found an idyllic spot near the water to watch birds. We also ran into this place.

  

It was the cutest little roadside ice cream place! It was very 1950s in style and I loved it. And the ice cream was not too shabby either!

The next day was all about family. This year has been a big baby boom in my family - there were three babies born this year with one more on the way! I had not yet my cousin Meghan's son Rowan, and so we were headed to the farm to meet him. They were in town from Chicago, and wanted to meet our little guy too. Everywhere you looked there was a baby! It was W.'s first visit to farm country and I think he really loved it. He had a great sunset view with his dinner and then some quiet time with his dad.

 So for not being a big fan of the Fourth, this year was pretty darn good. I had a fabulous weekend with my family, small and large.

 Hope you all had a fabulous fourth too!