A Birthday Weekend!

In my family, the 4th of July has always been a birthday celebration for my sister Keri--and our country second.  This year since the 4th of July was on a Sunday, it threw a kink into our well laid out, tried and true celebration: all day long spent at the beach.  We couldn't spend the whole day at the beach because we didn't want to ditch out on church.  So instead of just abandoning the beach, we just moved it to a day earlier and added on a bunch of other party activities.

Birthday weekend day #1: Padres Game

My dad bought us all tickets to see the Padres play and watch the fireworks after the game, but the bonus part was that the seats were in the all-you-can-eat section.  Talk about awesome!  We got these wristbands and we could go up and get endless amounts of hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, and drinks.  Knowing my family, we had to get our money's worth out of the seats.  The ticket lady told me that the food/drink station was going to close down during the 6th inning.  At the top of the inning, I took Keri and Tera up to get our last round of everything.  Between the three of us, I think we brought back 25-30 drinks (mostly Diet Coke because my family members are addicts), five bags of peanuts, and a box of popcorn.  The people in the seats around us just started to laugh at us, but we didn't mind.  It felt triumphant!!

Here's Ty with hot dogs number 3 and 4--go Ty go!

Here's Keri's real birthday present: CJ flew down for the weekend.  It's always fun to hang out with him and get to know him better.  The crazy part is that the next time he's down here, it will be wedding time!  Man, we have a lot to do before then.

This picture makes me laugh.  My dad had to get in on the action with Toni and Aaron.  We  love our dad!

Thanks mom and dad for the fun night!

Our seats were great; right at the end of the first base line next to the foul pole.  I feel like I need to show my Padres spirit at the games, so I always wear my super sweet, free Padres hat.

Tera, Ty, and Toni.  It was rather cold, so we were all bundled up.

Here's the whole crew (minus me because I'm taking the picture).  The Padres even won the game by scoring in the last two innings of the game!

Here's Ty and Tera getting cozy and ready to watch the fireworks.

It was a great fireworks show!

Before we left for the game Friday night, Brian told me that we would be staying the night down in San Diego for our belated wedding anniversary.  5 years!!  It was celebrated a week late because on our actual anniversary, I was up at girl's camp with church.  So I packed up an overnight backpack for Bailey and sent her off for a slumber party with Grandma.

She's packed and ready to go...

almost.  She has been a bit dramatic lately because she's getting four molars.  I hate teeth!  They turn Bailey into a tiny monster.  She was not sad to leave us, she was just sad that she couldn't sit with her sippy and watch Gabba before she left.

We stayed at the Omni Hotel that's downtown right next to Petco Park.  Two of my favorite things are staying in hotels and getting room service, so this mini vacation was going to be a special treat.

These were the views from our hotel room.  It was awesome because it was right on the harbor and in the middle of downtown.  After the game we walked around downtown and enjoyed some really good people watching.  We also ate some delicious cupcakes at a little cupcake shop; my red velvet cupcake was the best.

The kink in the plan was that Saturday morning, Bailey woke up covered in hives.  So instead of being able to completely enjoy a peaceful day, I felt worried and stressed about Bailey's hives--not that they weren't going to go away, but worried about what caused them.  We ended up eating breakfast at a place in Hillcrest because the room service breakfast menu did not look sweet.  Our breakfast was yummy and then we stopped by a Costco (another one of my favorite places) on the way home to get some supplies for the birthday feasts planned for the rest of the weekend.

Birthday Weekend Day #2: a day at the beach

I actually have not a single picture from our day at the beach because I spent most of my time there taking a very relaxing nap and playing volleyball.  I was able to nap under the sun while Brian went and picked up Bailey.  It ended up being a really nice day at the beach, despite the gross weather we've been having lately.  Once Brian got to the beach later in the afternoon, we played with Bailey and ate tin foil dinners. 

Right after eating dinner, Bailey started getting really big hives again so we left.  On the way home I think I discovered the source of her hives: soy.  Brian had given her some gum on the way to his mom's house on Friday and then on the way to the beach on Saturday.  After wracking my brain, the gum was the only new thing I could think of that Bailey had eaten that weekend.  When I looked at the package of gum it said, "Allergy information: contains soy."  I have never heard of anyone being allergic to soy before, but the fact that it was identified on the package makes me think that Bailey is not the only one.  We got her home, gave her more medicine, and put her to bed.  While she was sleeping, my sisters, CJ, and I went to see Eclipse.  It was a good ending to a long day.

Birthday Weekend day #3:  birthday BBQ

We were blessed for going to the beach on Saturday because it was super crappy weather on Sunday.  We all went to church Sunday, I even taught a lesson on pioneers, then we went over to the house for a feast.  Brian made Keri's favorite: salmon and CJ's favorite: crab cakes.  We also made the awesome asparagus salad.  It was a fabulous feast!

Here's Bailey and the birthday girl!

Yes, this is a posed picture, but go USA!

My mom and Bailey held our very own 4th of July parade in the back yard.

More patriotic pics.

Toni and Bailey.  Bailey had just woken up from her nap, so that's why she is without her glasses in these pictures.

Bailey helped Keri blow out her candles and open her presents.  I love how my dad was lighting round two of the candles while Keri is still blowing out the first batch.

Happy Birthday day princess Keri!

After all the birthday celebrations were done, we left at 8:45 to go watch some more fireworks.  I think that our new family tradition is to watch fireworks in the parking lot of the Big O Tires.

Last year we happened to be driving home when we saw a great fireworks display.  We pulled in to the closest parking lot we could see to watch the show and it ended up being a great show.  From the empty parking lot we could sit and enjoy the San Marcos fireworks without all of the crazy crowds.  We decided to continue our tradition and again enjoyed another great show.  Bailey was interested in the fireworks for about 7 minutes and then she wanted to be free.  The following pictures are all of the many positions of Bailey while she attempted to watch the fireworks:

In the back of Brian's car.

Sitting on top of my car.

Standing in the parking lot.  Most of the time she was running around and dancing to the music.

Doby sat terrified on the floor of Brian's car.  He popped up every now and then to see if he could be rescued.

It was an amazing weekend (minus the hives) and really fun to just hang out with my family!  We always have fun together, no matter what we do.  Today we continued the fun with a morning of baking and a BBQ with Brian's family.  I was so worn out from the weekend, that I didn't take any pictures.  Happy Fourth of July to all!

Here's a picture of Bailey helping me make banana break muffins.  She did a great job helping me, but she wanted to lick and taste everything.  She even stuck her finger in the bowl of flour and tasted it; she said it tasted yummy.

I haven't introduced the newest member of our family--baby Joslyn Miller!  My SIL Sam had her on Saturday, June 26 and 4:00.  She is so cute and adorable and I can't wait to meet her next week.  Congratulations Kyle and Sam and welcome to the family!