Fourth of July

Four day weekends are like solid gold to us.  We get time to relax, time to "sleep in" (about 8, 8:30 around here), time with one another, time with our families, and time to get stuff done.  I usually like to pack as much as I can into a long weekend, but this past Fourth was an exception.  We didn't do much.  Ever since we took Sadie to Santa's Village earlier this year, she's been obsessed with carnival rides.  So one thing we planned to do is visit my parents in Highland and go over to the annual Fourth of July carnival together.  We sat out the fireworks this year since Sadie isn't quite old enough to really enjoy them.  Instead, the "other Quintero's" came over and we shot off fireworks at our house.  Sadie was a little scared at first, pressing her hands against her ears, but little by little she got used to them.  Cute story, Juan was feeling "brave" and jumped over some fireworks as they were going off on the ground.  Sadie ran over to him, grabbed his face and said "Be careful Papi.  Don't do dat again!  OK?"  Cutie :)  Here are some pictures from the carnival.

Matus is one of the few people she will let lead her around.  

Hitting up the beach is the only other thing we had planned for the weekend.  Sadie gets really excited to go to the beach.  Some of her favorite things to do are roll around in the sand, build sandcastles, search for "treasure" in the sand, and chase seagulls.  We didn't go in the water much because she's afraid of it.  Maybe it's because there's no clear boundaries around her??  I guess that could be overwhelming.  We carried her into the lake in hopes she'd get over it but it seemed to only cement her fears.  So for now we'll keep our distance and play at the water's edge.

Cheeeeeeeeese

I love seeing her little toes wiggle in the sand

Freedom!