summer in seattle: 4th of july

We spent the last week in Seattle visiting my brother and his family. It was really fun and I'm so glad we were able to go. It's not around the corner from Arizona and David used almost all his vacation for our Europe trip but we made it work and had a great time. We arrived Wednesday night and went straight to their house in Sammamish. Poor Fritz had been really sick all week and was so miserable on the flight that he actually just snuggled with me (never happens) and then finally fell asleep about 15 minutes before we landed. Not ideal but then he zonked out as soon as we got to the house. We put the minions to bed and then stayed up way too late watching (and dying laughing at) this guy's videos on YouTube.
The next morning was the 4th of July. We woke up and had a leisurely breakfast (Leone makes the best whole wheat cinnamon waffles) and the boys played in the backyard for a long time. My poor kids were plain thirsty for time outside because I did too - the Pacific Northwest is some of the most beautiful country in the world! I'm glad they enjoyed it so much. Beck and William were in heaven playing together. It was really sweet to watch. After we all got ready, we decided to head to Issaquah for their town parade. It was over by the time we got there so we met Leone's sister and her husband and took a beautiful walk, picking blueberries along the way, to get some pizza. I've decided that any place where I can pick blueberries on the side of the road is the place for me.

Just as we got in the cars to leave, we got an e-mail from my mom that my brother-in-law, David, had a heart attack (ended up not being a heart attack - more of a heart "electrical glitch" episode) up at our family cabin where everyone was spending the holiday weekend. This was a huge shock since my brother-in-law is very active and fit. He was even jogging around the lake when it happened and we are still hoping and praying that he will be OK. If you can spare a prayer for him, please do.

Margot and Fritz needed naps after lunch so Leone and I took them home while David and Stephen took the boys to the Issaquah fair. I asked David to take a ton of pictures for me since I couldn't be there to see him enjoy the rides. He took a lot and it made me wish I had been there to see his excitement. David said he had a great time and I could tell because he was exhausted when he got home. These pictures make me laugh. You can totally see what was happening here in the progression. First, Stephen was like "OK you boys, look at David so he can take a picture".

They oblige. Kind of.

Then they can't resist so they turn around again to look at the excitements that awaits.

They went on a ton of jumpy slides and obstacle courses. Every picture David took had me smiling because I knew that inside, William was dying. He doesn't show a lot of facial expression, but I know he was thrilled.

Then Uncle Stephen bought the boys big ice cream cones, which I think they liked. :)

Then they were back for more rides and slides. These pictures are cracking me up of my little boy on these huge slides. Doesn't he look so happy??

That afternoon, Fritz was in such misery that I decided to take him to Urgent Care. He hadn't eaten in days and if you know Fritz, that is crazy since he eats like a teenage boy! He had also had a fever for a few days that wasn't getting better so I took him in. As I suspected, he had another ear infection. Poor baby. Once I got some antibiotics in him, he was feeling way better!

The third trauma of the day (because, you know, everything happens in threes) ended when Beck got his tooth knocked out. He and William were taking turns pushing their cars down the stair banister and the other would catch it down below. William let go of his car and it hit Beck in the mouth and his tooth had popped right out. I felt awful and so did William. As soon as it happened, I ran up the stairs with Leone and William said, "I didn't do it!" He's been accused of hurting Fritz one too many times, I guess. Ha!

Our Independence Day hadn't been very patriotic with all the sad things going on, so we decided to have hamburgers, watermelon, salad and root beer for dinner. Then we put the kids to bed and listened to the firework shows from afar and went to bed. It was an eventful day, and not in a good way. I can deal with knocked out teeth and ear infections but we have been praying night and day that David will recover.