Ahh.. Day of rest...

I hope everyone had a safe and happy fourth. Ours was crazy, way crazy. We started off with rushing our holiday morning, as we had a picnic to attend for the Fil-Am at 11am. we brought red, white, and blue cupcakes (and we were going to bring fruit but didn't have enough time to cut it!) Then we all piled in the car and headed to Blue Lake where the annual Independence Day Picnic is put on by the Fil-Am Portland. It was crazy and fun, they have about 5 playgrounds and the kids wanted to try them all, then Julius signed up to play volleyball and ofcourse it started raining (twice). We ate and ate, it's always potluck style, I think that is Philippine tradition. Then there were games, and we won as "youngest mom". We decided to skip the annual boat ride because it was cold. After all of our Vancouver group was gone we finally decided to go, around 4pm. (Although they had just broken out the karaoke, another beloved Filipino past time).

The plan was to go home and give the kids a nap before proceeding to our next destination.

That didn't happen. As we were driving back we took whatever that road is on the Oregon side that is on the river, then crossed over on I-5 and came back on 14 (apparently gas was free yesterday) and as we were driving we saw the Fort Vanc. with all it's bells and whistles. We have never been there for the fourth (in fact I grew up in Vancouver and still never went because my family isn't "crowd" people). But come to find out, after having my backpack fully searched and being grilled as to why I have duck tape, it wasn't as crowded as I thought. Alexa and I went on the giant slide, and then her and dad went on some huge turning bear ride. Adrianne was very distraught that she was not allowed to have her turn, but she is a good three inches shy of the menacing black height line. So we sat in the grass for a bit and Alexa had been asking me for a drink of water for about and hour and a half (poor dehydrated kid...) so I went to the ATM and withdrew some money at the whopping fee of $3, holy crud that's almost one gallon of gas!! But the kid needed water before she shriveled up like a little raisin. And ofcourse you have to withdraw in increments of $20, so I also bought a teriyaki plate, a shave ice, and a pepsi... also a water for Alexa. We sat and had those while the kids ran around and threw grass (I am sure other people were thinking "whose kids are those!!")

At 7 p.m. people were starting to settle in on the grass lawn for the fireworks so we vacated our prime seating as we had somewhere else to go. By 7:20 we were in Camas off of 192nd at a friends house who is right on the river, more food (ofcourse, Filipino's). The kids did awesome, they played and ran and have gotten very accustomed and comfortable with being away from mom (I have gotten some comments on how different they are since I joined MOMS Club, thanks Melanie, you really changed us for the better!!). So I had time to chat and we brainstormed the whole Mrs. Philippines thing and decided I need to work harder at it (yay, me...) once it finally got dark, which seemed like forever, we set out on the balcony and watched some fire works across the river and some of the fort ones.. Then ofcourse they had their own which was interesting, Alexa had alot of fun, Adrianne however hid her face for all the big mortar shells. At 10 p.m. the show was just beginning but we were off again..

With kids loaded into the car, we said goodbye to the festivities, not to go home and go to bed, but to drive to the airport and pick up my mom (she always comes on July 4th, it's the cheapest day to fly). After racing to the airport and amazingly dodging all of the slow moving vehicles on GLJ bridge we made it and took out ticket for the temporary parking. We also have this tradition of "there's always ample parking on the 7th" so we circled up, up, up, to the 7th floor of the parking garage where onlookers were checking out the fireworks (a great place to watch) and found my mom standing there with her baggage, patiently waiting for us to arrive. Which happens every year. Then since we went to the original picnic at Blue lake we had a car full of stuff, but Julius jammed her suitcase and flight bag in and slammed the trunk down and we were off again! We planned to take that same road we took earlier, the one close to the river on the Oregon side, but it was closed (I told him it would be, but he did not listen... men.) So we took 205 back across the GLJ and took 14 down to I-5 while watching the fireworks in the car, Adrianne fell asleep. Mom wanted ice cream so I called the TGI Fridays, but they were closed, so we circled back around - did I mention that gas was free yesterday - and we took 500 back to our house where Adrianne was knocked out, but the rest of us had ice cream and 4th of July cupcakes (accept Julius who doesn't really eat sugar - he is so unlike me..) Finally a little past midnight we all went to bed..

Today shall be a day of rest.