Celebrating the 4th of July!!

Hello everyone. Greetings from (finally) sunny, central Jersey. We hope that everyone had a great 4th of July week…we sure did. For a child that admits that she prefers the snow, Victoria has really found so much shear enjoyment from summer activities. For one (as we have chronicled), she loves the water. This week, she and Mommy were able to get out and go swimming with our neighbors (who have a 3 year old boy and a 5 year old girl). This could qualify as her very first play-date and she really enjoyed playing with them. Of course, this was just the start of a week where little Miss had a number of firsts.

We had a very exciting 4th of July weekend. Leading up to the holiday, Victoria had been seeing US flags all around and she has shown incredible interest in the flag (which she says is beautiful). So, we picked her up a shirt that had a flag on it and she was so very excited to wear it. She has also started to enjoy wearing headbands (as you will likely see in a few of the pictures below). For the holiday weekend, we headed out of town and Victoria handled the extended car ride very well. Thanks to traffic, it was a 4.5 hour trip up to Connecticut (3 hours coming home), were we spent the weekend at a lake in East Hampton.

What a blast she had at the lake (possibly her first time at a lake). In talking about the lake ahead of the trip, she was a little uncertain, but once she got there she was ready to jump in. There was no shortage of fun things for her to do…each more exciting than the next. She was able to go on her first jet ski ride and her first boat ride. On the boat ride, she even took a turn at doing some tubing with her cousin. The fun activities didn’t end there. She also had a blast playing on the slip-n-slide and on the hammock with her cousin (hours of laughing, giggling fun).

Another interesting first is that Victoria finally felt comfortable enough to pet a dog. Turns out that our little girl had a run in with a dog a year or two ago, where she was bitten on the arm. Since then, she has been extremely afraid to get to close to dogs (understandable, of course). We let her know that we would not let anything happen to her and she saw that we were all so comfortable with this particular dog. So, she took the plunge, on her own terms...only petting the dog’s back while it was lying down. When the dog stood, she did not want to be around it. Even so, this was an incredibly big step for her and is really indicative of how much she is settling in here with us. Remember, Rome was not built in a day… The 4th of July finished off with a number of fireworks displays (there were a number of shows going on around the lake). Victoria enjoyed this week’s shows just as much as she did last week’s. Great end to a great weekend.

Here are some pictures from this week…

Chilling out pool-side after a swim with Mommy:
Happy Birthday Pop-Pop!
Rocking out on the hammock:
Making strides in feeling comfortable around dogs:
Our little angel dressed and ready for the 4th of July!
Enjoying the slip-n-slide:
We really wish she would just relax and just have some fun (sarcasm, of course):
First boat ride and still having a blast!
Taking a moment to relax with Daddy:
Two beautiful smiles on two beautiful ladies:
Mommy with her sisters and the next generation:
Settling in for a 4th of July fireworks show with her cousin: