Fourth (and Fifth) of July

We went to downtown Apex for the "Old-time 4th of July" celebration. It was a lot of fun...they had a ton of different carnival-type games, fair food, and inflatable bouncy things. Matt and I were thankful that Alden wasn't a year or two older because she would have wanted to do EVERYTHING. We settled for some people-watching and enjoying a snow cone. On the way out, there was a real train going down the tracks in downtown. It went REALLY slowly, and then backed up and went forward. Luckily, we had crossed to the other side just in time, because there were a lot of people waiting on either side for a LONG time. Alden loved seeing the train, and I think that was the highlight of the day for her.

We headed to Regency Park in Cary for the fireworks, and got there in plenty of time to make the hike into the lake. Unfortunately, we had only been there 20 minutes or so, and the symphony had just started playing when a HUGE storm blew in. Lightning, thunder, rain, etc. We started walking/running the mile or so back to the car, and got there pretty hot, sticky, and tired. I was hoping that the physical effort of jogging back to the car might help jostle Hudson out, but unfortunately, I just ended up feeling really sore the next day.

The fireworks were rescheduled for the 5th, so we went back that night, although we wised up and parked a little closer, just in case. Sure enough, the show was supposed to start at 9 and about 8:40, there was lightning in the distance. I think the Town of Cary guys weren't pumped about the possibility of coming back the NEXT night, so they started right then and we were able to take in the show before the rain came. Alden was a little nervous about the fireworks at first, but she cuddled with Grammy and had her passy, and ended up enjoying them. She was concerned about the geese, though, that DID seem scared and were swimming around the edge of the lake. We got home and she kept saying "Fireworks go boom-boom-boom-boom" and telling us about the colors. She has gotten a lot better with her colors lately, with green and red being the only ones she doesn't get consistently, and pink still being the default if she doesn't know.