4th of July weekend

We had a great weekend. Dan had Thursday off and we love any extra days we can get with him!

This is an old one from Dan's phone. Camden loves his dad!

Enjoying a milkshake at Red Robin

 On Thursday we went to the aquarium. It still isn't quite full but it was much more finished than the last time we visited.

Cousin love!

Goofballs in the shark tunnel

 Our neighborhood had a little kids parade and bbq in our circle for the 4th. Camden didn't really participate but he had fun watching.

 We went up to a bigger neighborhood party at the park but it was too hot for us so we decided to come back and play in the sprinklers instead.

He kept asking Dan to spin him again and again!

He is obsessed with squirting things with the water bottle. His favorite targets are us!

 We went to the Davis' that night to finish celebrating. Earlier that day my neighbors had these cute bubble guns and Camden convinced Grandma Davis to buy one for him and the girls. She's such a softy :)

They loved them though!

Covering me in bubbles.

 Fireworks are illegal on our mountain because of all the dry grass around so we went across the highway to do some fireworks. Thanks to Shauna and Sam for providing the entertainment!

They were pretty excited.

Sam and Shauna let the cousins take turns picking which firework to do next. Camden was so excited for his turn.

First sparklers!

 That night we watched the Thanksgiving Point fireworks from the hill and Camden would not stop singing "Everything is awesome." He just sang it over and over and over. It was funny for a couple of minutes and then we were all done. He was so tired he was getting loopy. We went back to Steve and Sherri's for a cousins sleepover in the tent. Everyone fell asleep pretty quickly except Camden who was cracking jokes to grandma at 11:30. We finally just brought him home and he was asleep in 5 minutes. He seriously needs solitary confinement to sleep.  Even though it was a super busy day and Camden was up later than he had ever been, he never cried once. He really is such a good kid.

Yesterday we ran some errands and recovered from all the excitement.

I'm upside down!

 We went to Ikea and I had my first public embarrassment with Camden.  Normally he refers to people by the color of shirt they are wearing like "What's that blue guy doing? Where is that red girl going?" Yesterday, we were waiting to return something and Camden says "What's that black girl doing?" I turn around and their is an African American girl sitting on the arm of the couch we were sitting on. I hoped she couldn't hear him! She had a red shirt on and black pants. I don't know if he was really asking based on her skin or on her clothes. He kept staring at her because she was so close to us so I decided it would be better to start a conversation so she wouldn't think we were racist! Camden said hi and talked normally and I hope she wasn't offended. I'm not sure what the protocol is in that kind of situation!

I've been thinking about putting Camden in a big bed for awhile now. He sleeps really well in his crib but I'm kind of tired of leaning over the rail to rub his back or reach through the slats. Dan thinks I'm crazy and I kind of do too. I thought I'd leave him in there until he outgrew his crib. I'm kind of hoping reading stories in bed will cut out one of the steps of getting him to sleep too because we don't have to convince him that it's time to get in bed. We decided just to take off the front of his crib rather than switch to the bigger bed, so that if this experiment is a disaster I can just put the rail back up. Camden seemed excited when we took it down. He had a hard time sitting in bed for stories at first. I think he knew my master plan. After he realized I was going to read more than one story he was fine. We did our usual routine and then when I went to leave Camden said he wanted the part of the crib back on. He whined about it for a bit. (How many kids cry because they want to be stuck in bed!?) I told him this way was ok and he eventually came to terms with it.  He stayed in bed all night! Even when his pillow fell out he just reached over and got it. This morning when he woke up he stayed in bed. He just laid there asking for a blue alligator! So, the first night was a success! He didn't fall out or wake up or anything! I think nap time is going to be trickier but we'll see!

Such a big boy now!