Journey: Family, Fun, Food and Fireworks!

It's past 9am now and our little one is still asleep! This is because we kept him up late last night so he could experience his first 4th of July fireworks show. Although the show had some technical difficulties and was cut short, we all still had a wonderful time!! I love watching David's face as he experiences new things. He would point to the firework and light up!! He also enjoyed hearing and seeing the crowd and their reaction. At one point a BU student had everyone do a "sic 'em bears" and David absolutely loved it!! After that he kept doing the arm motion and saying bear. I see a strong presence of green and gold in his future!!!
That was the end of our night and we had a full day at my parents annual cookout. The cookout tradition started back in North Carolina at my grandparents farm. Growing up my mom, sister and I would spend the month of July at my grandparents farm in NC. On the 4th my granddad would fire up the grill and we'd have a cookout with neighbors and family. It was always a highlight of our trip! My god parents would make the most delicious peach ice cream and we'd have all the traditional cookout foods-hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, hot dog chili (an NC tradition), chips, etc. I was very excited to introduce David to our family tradition!

Lucky for us Waco has had a bit of a cool down so it was under 100 for our picnic which was great! We had friends and neighbors join us and my parents Baylor student- Nana from China. It was her first July 4th celebration just like David! We enjoyed eating outside under the trees and enjoying each others company. David ate and ate and ate! He really, really like tomatoes and blueberries. He also enjoyed the bread served with humus. By the time actual lunch rolled around he wasn't too hungry since he had snacked all morning!!
Since he loves being outside the picnic was great for him. My parents have a little table and chairs just his size. He loved moving the chairs around and sitting in different places around the backyard. He explored with Hannah and enjoyed playing with the dogs as well.
David's first 4th of July as an American citizen was lots of fun. I look forward to sharing this holiday with him and building our family traditions. I am so thankful that my parents and sister are all in one place so we can spend great family time together!! I am also thankful to the many men and women who so bravely serve our country each and every day so that we can celebrate and Independence Day!! Happy 4th!!


The Gochis Family
They were missing Drew who is at FCA camp this week