A Hales Life: Fourth of July Midwest Road Trip Leg 1

The first leg of our trip was 3 days and 4 nights in our hometown of Glen Ellyn, IL. We were initially going to be driving through the night on Friday night the 2nd of July so that we didn't have to waste a whole day driving. But Megan ended up deciding to take the whole day off work instead of just half a day and we left at about 5 am with Kayla and Samson in tow.

The drive started out ok. Kayla slept and Samson wasn't SUPER annoying (despite his constant attempts to climb over Kayla in her car seat to get to the window.) Things seemed to progressively get worse, but that could also be attributed to the increasing time in the small car. (Later in the trip we decided to switch up the seating arrangements which I think worked out a bit better.) I caught a rare moment of peace for Megan and I on my iPhone:

Notice Kayla sleeping in the mirror...

We arrived at Nanny & Gramps' house (my maternal grandparents) at around 6 pm on Friday. I fed Kayla her cereal and put her to bed and we soon followed. We (the girls) spent most of Saturday shopping as I mentioned here, and Sunday my dad came down for the day to spend some time with Kayla. Megan went to lunch with a friend from high school, and Lauren and I took off to Buy Buy Baby for some essentials. I left my dad and Nanny to put Kayla down for a nap (which didn't go very easily on this vacation). I recall them saying she screamed for a bit but eventually, my dad was able to walk around holding her and she slowly began to fade. My mom's sister and her two daughters came over to spend a little bit of time with us before her whole family came out for the Fourth. We all went to the park and enjoyed some swinging time. It's so nice to be able to feel like a kid (not me personally as I was the photographer but I live vicariously.)

I had to really try to recall what exactly we did on Sunday, but I can tell you without a doubt what we ate: Portillo's, Barones pizza and fried mushrooms from Alfie's- things you pretty much can't visit Glen Ellyn/Illinois without. Is it sad I recall the food so clearly? :)

Monday was the Fourth of July which I posted a bit about here. But to expend on the day filled with activities:

Megan and I were up at 5 am to stake our claim on a spot on Lake Ellyn for the fireworks. I haven't done this before (I haven't actually been in Glen Ellyn for fireworks in at least 5 years), but I have to say I was a little disappointed. I was expecting some elbowing and yelling out "Don't you THINK about putting your blanket down there. That's our spot!" and maybe some ~~intentional~~ accidental tripping of opponents...I'm not competitive at all. However, all I got was my grandma, Megan, me and the dogs (since they were going to wake up the whole neighborhood if we didn't bring them with) walking calmly to the very edge of the lake and a guy riding by and telling us to go ahead and put our blankets down. What?!? BEFORE 6 am? Megan assures me in previous years there are lines of people waiting just outside the sidewalk at 5:30 am biding their time until they can rush to their "spot" at 6 am. Not so much this year.

After placing their blankets down, people like to sit there and admire there spots...

When we got back, Kayla was awake and Megan and Lauren got ready to run the Freedom Four (miler). I walked with them to the start since Kayla was getting a little fussy. The dogs barked/howled at us the entire way. You could hear them from the high school where the start was. Kayla was MUCH cheery-er after our short walk so Nanny and I stood on the corner by their house to watch the runners at the beginning and the end of the run. The dogs "cheered" too.

After the run, everyone showered and got ready for the day. Then Nanny, Megan, Brendan and I headed down to the parade with Kayla. Kayla didn't cry once, in fact, despite the loud bands, bagpipers etc, she practically fell asleep. It was hot but it was so great for me to be there again, seeing superman (see Megan's post), the bagpipers, the old fashioned cars, and the horses. There may have been too many politicians but it was still fun.

After that, my aunt's family got there and I spent the rest of the evening trying NOT to overstimulate Kayla with the amount of people there. I finally got her to sleep before the fireworks. I had researched how to take good photos of the fireworks with my camera prior to the show so here are some of my favorite shots:

Pre-show practice with glow bracelets (one of which I burst all over my cousin Kelsey)

Too much smoke, I didn't try to edit any of these yet...I just love the silhouettes

Kayla did get woken up due to the EXTREMELY loud finale and it was a bit of a rough night, but I vow to NEVER not see fireworks on the fourth of July as long as I live.