The Houghs: The Fourth and Fifth

Happy Belated Beat-the-Crap-Out-of-an-Englishman Day!

The first week of July, for the Houghs, is a joyous time of year, to be sure. Generally, the festivities surrounding Independence Day take up a couple days, and Yours Truly turns the big 2 - 4 on July 5th. All in all, a fun week of sun, fireworks, barbequing, cake, candles. . .and lots of crying alone in the dark, wondering how you got to be so Goddamn old.

The usual.

Check it out:

Kris dressed the girls up in their patriotic best for a visit to an old folks home with the fabled League of Extraordinary Moms (to which Kris has recently been promoted to Grand Master, I believe)

Watching some of the Order's other kids playing piano for some old people. . .

Patriotic paper plates - my favorite!

. . . and now it's a hat.

(Honestly, I don't think they made these themselves. . .)

Parading through the ward. . .

Bucking conventional festivities, like we so often do, the Houghs this year decided to celebrate the Day We Said Screw Off, King George III in Floridian style: going to a beach and an amusement park.

First up: Cocoa Beach.

Cocoa Beach, FL.

For the last five years, Kris and I have preferred Canaveral Beach to the more commonly known Cocoa Beach. Why? Well, basically they're the exact same beach - same sand, same Atlantic Ocean, etc. . . only Canaveral Beach tends to have way less people. That's a plus with us (I hate tourists).

This time around, Kris was meeting up with a friend of hers from work who knew of a great spot to park near Cocoa Beach (for free). This place also had a nearby restrooms, showers, and places to grab food, so we decided to give it a go.

Fortunately, we got to the beach early enough to snag a parking spot, and by 11am we had established base camp on the beach, some paces from the ocean. . .

Alayna carried the sand ways the entire distance from the car to the beach. This is surprising not because they're necessarily heavy sand toys, mind you - rather she seems to quickly get bored with being helpful.

Down the causeway to the beach. . .

Being slow. . .

Kris tries and convince the Cannonball that the waves won't eat her. . .

Chasing the tide

Alayna finally warmed up to the waves after a few minutes. . .

. . . Abby did not.

"Screw water."

Busting out the sand toys. . .

Alas, their attempts at constructing reliable defensive works proved to be futile. . .

Lunch time.

Toddlers are sand magnets.

Believe it or not, this beautiful sky turned to complete doom in a few short hours - by about 2pm, the sky went nearly black and the Rain God let forth his fury. Fortunately, by the time that happened, we were safely in our Tactical Family Transport Vehicle and heading back towards the Beachline.

After both of our kids were bathed and put down for much-needed naps, we decided to let hit up Sea World (again) - this time to check out their annual fireworks extravaganza. When Kris had plotted this out earlier, she was convinced that the firework show started at 9pm. . . but oh, how she was wrong. As it turns out, the fireworks wouldn't start until nearly 10:45pm - much too late for our girls, who were falling asleep in the stroller by 9:30pm. So, around 10:15pm or so, we had decided to say 'screw it' and drove home to check out what the locals were shooting off into the sky in our neighborhood (because that's insanely popular down here).

Smurf it:

The Ray Tank. . . or whatever the hell it's called.

Kris loves rays.

I'm always hesitant to reach into the water myself and touch these things, for fear that they might sting me upon contact. Not sure if the whole 'stinging-thing' is specific to sting rays or else shared with manta rays and other such rays. I'm not a rayologist.

Watching other people get soaked never gets old. . .

Watching dolphins, wiping away boogers. The usual.

Underneath the dolphin exhibit. . .

Alayna loves this attraction.

Abby's a big dolphin fan as well, if only because she can pronounce the word 'dolphin.'

"BIG FISH!"

Kris, trying to round up some popcorn to keep the kids placated. . .

Even by 9pm, people were crowding around Sea World's center 'lagoon' in hopes of nabbing a decent seat for the fireworks display. But, like I mentioned earlier, they weren't starting until practically 10:45pm - way too late for the Houghs. So we said 'screw it' and headed the few blocks home. . .

. . . where we watched our neighbors shoot illegal fireworks into the sky from the street. The Cannonball woke up when we pulled in the driveway, and, seeing how we promised her fireworks, we let her stay up for awhile. . .

After watching the fireworks from the street, I let Alayna light a few 'toddler-friendly' Roman Candles, sparklers, and the like off our back porch. . .

The noise freaked her out a little bit - I don't think she'd be all that great as a hunting dog.

The next morning, sometime around 3am, we were awoken by Abby trying to crawl in bed with us. Usually we send the kids back to bed - we're not those weirdo adults that sleep with their kids all night - but since we had both been up late with fireworks and what-have-you, we allowed it. Alas, sleeping with two chicks isn't nearly what one would think it'd be, and by 4:30am I found myself being repeatedly kicked in the lower spine by my two-year-old.

As a result, the morning of my 24th birthday found me lying with a small Yo Gabba Gabba blanket on the living room loveseat at 6am. Happy birthday to me!

Every year, Kris asks me what I want to do for my birthday, and every year I have to tell her 'nothing.' I like my personal space, and for my birthday, I wanted nothing more than to dump the kids in her lap, retreat back into my Study, and write, play videogames, and listen to records while drinking and slacking off any and all parental obligations. The makings of a glorious birthday, indeed. . .

Silly String ambush on the back patio. . .

Alayna dictated her card for me this year: "Daddy's favorite things are swords, ukuleles, and playing in a band with Adam. I made a picture of your rock band. I like watching Star Wars in your work room. My favorite thing is when you put me on your shoulders and give me piggy-back rides in the pool. Happy Birthday, I love you."