Celebrating the Fourth

We had a heck of a good July 4th weekend, filled with family, friends, walks, and swimming. And we made a trip to New York, with a baby, and didn't die! Amazing. PLUS, we fit everything in to the car and didn't even have to tie the dog to the roof. Bonus for CoCo. She's not a big fan of being tied to the roof.

John started the weekend off right with a walk with Dex in the Baby Bjorn. This was close to the last walk with this thing, because now we have...
Taa-daa!! A brand new (well, new to us) Kelty backpack. It is DA BOMB. Way easier on my shoulders during our daily morning walks around the neighborhood. And it will rock when we go to the Adirondacks in August.

We spent Friday playing in the Zukor's back yard, with our friends Dave and Becky who were in town from Florida.

This little monkey is going to be one heck of a babysitter in about three months...
The lounging sisters
John is WAY more fun to climb on than say, oh, the swingset three feet away from you...
Dave's "Bring It" stance
In another life, Joey was a Storm Trooper
Awww. Isn't that sweet. We'll forgive you, Dex, for cuddling with the Tennessee Volunteers shirt. THIS TIME. Next time, though, all bets are off. No cuddling with rival schools!
Splashing in the kiddie pool was WAY fun. And just a precursor to what was to come all weekend!

Friday night we made the drive to New York. An evening of new experiences for Dex, including his first time nursing in the car, and his first diaper change at a truck stop. Sweet! Also, Oreo Frostys from Wendy's are super yummy. For Mom. Not for Dex.

Dex seems to be enjoying his first dip in to Grandma and Grandpa's pool. Also, wow do I really need to work out and try to become some shape other than round. Fortunately, the really scary part, my thighs, are mostly underwater here.
Woo-hoo! Check it out, Dad! I caught a ring!
The matching hat boys
Grandma made this face and cool bubbles came out of the water. Why doesn't it work for me?
Hey, we start em young in the Cowan household...
Generations. Crazy. Except for Dex, we all have the same nose.

We drove home during the day on Monday, which went really well til we got about ten miles from home and Dexter started crying. He'd had enough of his car seat, thankyouverymuch. After all that swimming in nice cool, big, fun pools, we came home to this:

Hey, it's not as cool as the Zukor's baby pool, but Mom couldn't find a hard-sided one. And it certainly isn't as cool as Grandma and Grandpa's pool. But my craptastic ghetto-pool is awesome. For another couple uses. Til it springs a leak.