4th of July Weekend 2016 in Wamego, Kansas

Good morning and happy Tuesday! How was your holiday weekend? I usually try to write these recap-type posts the night before, but last night I was a little under the weather and just plain exhausted from a very full afternoon/evening of holiday activities. Right now Sadie is taking her morning nap, Jamie and Hadley are eating breakfast and watching TV, and I’m enjoying some peace and quiet to pop into my blog and share some weekend fun with you. 🙂

We kicked off our holiday weekend on Thursday morning by heading to our local zoo for a few hours. We visited a zoo in Salina (Kansas) last year during the holiday weekend, so we figure that we’ll try and make visiting the zoo a new family 4th of July weekend tradition.

Hadley was so happy to have her partner-in-crime Jack join us to run around for a while. I love the way she’s looking at him in the picture below. They have so much fun together!

Mamas: I got Jamie  from MissionCritical.com pictured below for Father’s Day, and he’s loving it. He’s used it a few times when running around with Hadley by himself, but he’s also been using it as his primary work bag. It has tons of compartments, is very spacious, and apparently very comfortable to wear. It also came with a changing pad which came in handy yesterday when he needed to change Sadie’s diaper while I was riding carnival rides with Hadley. It’s a little pricier than I originally wanted to spend, but I’m happy he has something that he likes so much and that should get many years worth of use. I also waited to buy it until it went on sale, which apparently happens often according to the emails they’ve been sending.

Hadley only has one speed at the zoo: run!

We got a little bit of rain this weekend (first time in over a month), so we soaked up lounging inside quite a bit and enjoyed time outside during rain breaks.

There’s nothing Pinterest-worthy about our back deck area, but we do so much life back here. We sink into those chairs and sip wine, eat dinner barefoot and cross-legged, and just relax.

This area is totally shaded by the house during the late afternoon and evenings, so we retreat here often. Sadie hangs in her bouncer, Hadley plays with her water toys, and we just relax. It’s wonderful.

The heartache of the weekend was dealing with Teddy’s dislocated hip. He’s had issues with his left hip for years, but surgery has never seemed like the best option until recently. There’s much more to Teddy’s history that I would get in to, but for now we’re simply facing the decision of a very expensive surgery + 6-8 weeks of crate confinement versus taking the chance that his hip will pop out of place again (which means rushing to the vet again and paying another $200 to get it fixed). Oy. He’s 8.5 years old. This morning you’d never know anything happened because he’s back to his happy self.

On Saturday morning it was raining, so we joined the Landers last minute for a 10 a.m. showing of Finding Dory! Hadley had zero (and I mean zero) interest in sharing this $10 bag of popcorn. “No, MINE!”

She was a little bit of a handful at times when she wanted to run a few laps around the theater, but for the most part she did okay! Super super super cute movie, by the way. Worth seeing asap!

On Saturday night Meg and I met up in Aggieville for a couple drinks and girl time after all four of our kiddos were in bed asleep. It was much needed and fun!

We attempted the 11 a.m. church service on Sunday instead of our usual earlier time, but Sadie was begging us to take a nap, so we darted out after the sermon was over. Poor baby crashed the second the wheels started rolling.

The Fourth of July kicked off in the very, very best way! Two of my closest friends here at Fort Riley welcomed their husbands home! I can’t think of a more patriotic Fourth than a deployment homecoming ceremony! Shannon’s husband got in around 5 a.m., but since Faith’s husband wasn’t scheduled to get in until around 1 p.m. she invited me to come help with her hair and makeup. Excuse my “bright and early” raw appearance, but how gorgeous does Faith look?!

After I got home around 10 a.m. Jamie took Hadley out for a couple hours (of course they ended up getting ice cream) while Sadie and I got in a nap. About 3:30 that afternoon we packed the car and headed to Wamego! We let Hadley ride about an hour’s worth of rides and then headed to watch the 6 p.m. parade.

Because we knew it would be so crowded, we decided to pack a cooler of food to eat during the parade instead of fight lines for $4 hotdogs and $3 drinks. Good plan!

Wamego is home to The Wizard of Oz museum and winery, and we sat right in front of it during the parade.

This was the very best family shot we could get yesterday. Don’t let Sadie’s face fool you; She was very well-behaved and happy almost the entire afternoon/evening. She’s probably fussing in this picture because she wanted to eat. She always wants to eat. Always. 😉

My tiniest peanut is passed out on the lap and my biggest girl’s mouth is full of tootsie rolls she’d collected that were thrown during the parade. Shout out to my friend Sarah for these adorable matching dresses that she passed down to me. Love them so much!

I hope you had a nice weekend as well! I’ll be back tomorrow to share all about our big date we went on last week. 🙂

More: Fourth of July 2015 | Fourth of July 2014 (Hadley’s 1st)