4th of July...Big Bear Style

What better place to spend the 4th of July than at Big Bear? We thought there would be no place better, so we packed our bags, and headed up to see Papa Jim and Grammie Sue. Our friend Josh came along for the ride as well.

We had so much fun. Josh and Dave immediately went gallivanting around town - which of course in Big Bear meant that they went 4 wheel driving and down some kind of concrete slide on wheels. Unfortunately, Dave came back a little worse for wear.





Caiden and I had loads of fun too. We went 4 wheel driving (a little slower and less bumpy...after all I AM preggers) in Papa Jim's Jeep - he built it himself. Sad to say I don't have any pictures, and this is actually quite pathetic and Sue and I BOTH brought our cameras. :) Let's just say we were entranced with the scenery?

This was the perfect time to test out my new camera (Dave bought me a new camera for our anniversary - we have been married for 8 years...can you believe it?) I decided to take a picture of this really pretty butterfly that landed close to us.




After a quick nap (well for 3 of us anyway), we all hiked off to the 4th of July party celebration. Jim and Sue had woken up early and had already staked us out a prime piece of real estate to watch the fireworks. It was perfect because we could play the rest of the day and not have to worry about saving our spots.

When we arrived, Caiden was anxious to take part in all of the festivities, and Papa Jim was such a trooper. He must have gone to that bounce house about 4-5 times. Caiden LOVED it.



Caiden shows Papa how high he can jump


We even got Caiden's face and hand painted. He requested a fire truck, but then I requested an American flag (since the fire truck was a bit hard to draw for the teenagers doing the painting).

Proud grandparents look on as Caiden gets his face painted
Proud daddy there to see the fire truck being painted on Caiden's face
Caiden displaying his paint
Caiden giving you a prime view of his fire truck
Caiden and Dave

Josh and Dave thought they would test out their throwing skills at one of the tossing games. Umm..sorry to say that one of them did VERY well, while the other not so good. Can you guess which was which by their throwing technique? Gotta love the facial expressions. :)




After some of the fun and festivities we decided it was time to eat. The food was really good. I had the chicken (2 different kinds) and the others had the hot dogs and hamburgers.




We then retired to let our food settle and wait for the fireworks. Dave and Josh played cards and poker (shocker, I know), while Grammie Sue taught Caiden how to draw a caterpillar.






It was a rather hot day, so Caiden made sure to stay hydrated. After all, he had to keep up his strength to wrestle with Papa Jim!







After wrestling, Caiden decided to take a break and walk down with Sue and I to the water, so he could throw some rocks into the water. He had a lot of fun with that. Sue and Caiden then came back to play pretend lions. I think Sue was a bear though.






After we all calmed down a bit, we settled in for the finale of the evening...the fireworks. Jim and Sue bought Caiden a light stick which he proudly displayed until the fireworks started. He then began making the rounds. He started out with Papa Jim, but when the loud fireworks started happening, he ran to me, and then I passed him over to Dave who tried his best to convince him to look. After some coaxing, Caiden decided to chance it and look at the fireworks.