4th of July Festivities from Dawn to Dusk

We had a great 4th of July from start to finish, and I literally mean from the time my feet hit the floor until the time I collapsed into bed. We surprised ourselves by accidentally planning a pretty full day, but I immensely enjoyed it, and I think my fam did too!

My dad runs a lot of road races (mainly 5ks nowadays after a knee injury over the winter), so he asked me a couple weeks ago if I’d like to run a 4th of July morning 5k with him. I haven’t run a race in 15 months, but I agreed and was up and at ’em to pick up our packets at 7 a.m. in south Huntsville.

I had the cutest crowd cheering me on at the finish! Even though it was only a 5k race, I struggled hard. I was trying to run it in 26 minutes (my previous record is 26:07), but from the very beginning I was “off”. My calves were oddly really tight, and the 90+ degree heat and direct sun really zapped me in a way I didn’t anticipate. The only thing that kept me running the last mile was knowing that my husband and kids were expecting me before the 28 minute mark, so I just kept on chuggin’ along!

My dad was laughing at me that I was so beside myself after the race with exhaustion. I was just so zapped! You’d have thought I ran a half marathon! Sheesh.

I told my dad before the race that he’s a rockstar for running races like this at his age. His race time doesn’t matter at this point; I’m just glad he’s out moving, and I loved that the girls got to see their grandpa cross a road race finish line.

As soon as I cooled off and took a breather, we booked it a few miles down the road to grab doughnuts for breakfast. 🙂 Calories out, and then calories right back in. 😉 #balance

Our girls always pick a doughnut each, and then we split them so that they each get a half of each. I don’t know why, but we’ve always done this, and they love it. Jamie also treated them to a chocolate milk. They were happy campers, as were we!

Sadie’s hair is finally getting some length, and I think it’s the cutest thing.

We didn’t make any BBQ plans for the fourth (we thought about hosting a get-together with friends but decided we’d done enough entertaining lately), but Jamie decided last minute to have my parents over and grill for lunch. So we did just that! Having them five miles down the road is not overrated. We love it.

We ran to Publix on the way home from the race, grabbed some BBQ essentials (chicken, sausage, buns, chips, salad, etc.) and then cleaned up before my folks arrived around 11:30. Jamie grilled the best chicken while my dad hung with Hadley tearing apart a placemat map she’s been obsessed with while my mom and I hung with Sadie and caught up with each other.

Once our bellies were satisfied, we went over to our neighborhood pool and swam for a little over an hour. Grandpa gave Hadley wings. 🙂

After we swam, all of us DeSpain girls crashed hard. The girls went down to nap, and I surprised myself by crashing for two hours as well! I am not a napper, but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. A 5 p.m. cup of coffee did the trick at waking my body up before getting ready once again to meet some neighbors for our community’s big firework display.

We parked at a local high school and rode a bus to the fireworks display, and the four kids thought the bus ride was just as great (if not greater) than the fireworks display. Go figure!

We camped out on blankets, let the kids run around nearby, and had a nice time waiting for the fireworks to start around 9. This was the first year that we felt up for keeping the kids awake to watch a legit fireworks show, and they handled it like champs.

Enjoying it with wonderful new friends was the cherry on top! The Thorntons live four doors down from us, moved in one week before us, also moved from Kansas, and have kids almost exactly the same ages as our kids. They’re friendship has been a gift to us in this season of immense change.

We didn’t get home from the fireworks display until around 10:45 (we got hung up waiting for a bus to take us back to our cars), but the girls held it together until it was time for a speedy bath. Meltdowns ensued, but we gave them grace, got them in bed, and then rapidly called it a night ourselves.

I love America, summer, grilling, family time, and friend time, so the 4th of July is just one of my absolute favorites (always has been). It’s a no-stress, no-frills holiday that is designed to be a good, celebratory time no matter what you’re doing. I hope you enjoyed yours as well! <3

Hey!! Real quick! I am starting a new little series here on the blog tomorrow! I hope you’ll come back and see what’s replacing “The Saturday Sit-Down”. 🙂

Have a great rest of your Friday, friends!