We hope that all of you reading this had a very enjoyable 4th of July. The Hayes family had a really fun day. The day started with a long-standing Griffin (Emily’s family) tradition of decorating the kids’ bikes and strollers and having a parade. We invited some friends of ours who had kids over to join in the festivities. Although the weather was quite warm we enjoyed watching the kids get into the decorating and parading of their finely crafted vehicles. The decorating took about an hour and the parade lasted all of 6 minutes but it was a lot of fun. After the parade ended we invited everyone in for cupcakes and watermelon (all themed of course), as well as a little air conditioning. Emily had sweat enough for one day. The kids stayed and played for a bit and then headed on to enjoy the rest of their 4th of July.
Later that evening we went with Emily’s parents to enjoy dinner at Cape May, which is a delicious buffet restaurant at the Beach Club Resort at Disney. Two years ago while I was working, Hunter enjoyed his first taste of independence there on the 4th of July (his first consumption of rice cereal). Prior to sitting down to eat, we explored the grounds and took some great photos. Dinner was very enjoyable, as they had a great combination of traditional clam bake fare as well as “Sunday dinner” food and, of course, fabulous desserts. We ate way more than we should have, but it is always good to indulge every now and again.
After dinner we took a stroll around the Boardwalk and took a few more photos. The weather was still warm as it always is in Florida in the summer, but you can’t beat the atmosphere of the Boardwalk at night. The place was of course more crowded than normal, but everyone was very excited in anticipation of the fireworks. Hunter was excited too, but as the night grew on he lost a bit of his zest. We ended up getting in the car around 9:45 and watching the smattering of Disney fireworks from our car windows. Although it was tempting to go into Epcot and share the experience with 60,000 of our closest friends, we decided against it. As we drove home you could see fireworks in every direction that we looked. Ten minutes from home, Hunter was zonked in his car seat and ended up sleeping the night in his clothes (we did at least bring him inside). All in all it was a pretty great 4th with a couple of fun “new” old traditions! We are lucky to live in such a great country!
