K&A Peck: 3rd & 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th on the 3rd & 4th this year. Andrew's sister, Mindy & her boyfriend, Michael came up for the weekend to celebrate with the family.

On the 3rd we all headed down to the National Harbor. It's brand new to the area & located on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. Andrew & I have been wanting to get over there for some time now, so this was great. The area is filled with hotels, restaurants, & shopping. The National Children's Museum is also making it's way over to the Harbor.

There's two ways to get to the National Harbor. You can drive, which we did, or you can take the river taxi, which Andrew's parents, Mindy, & Michael did. The river taxi would have been fun & Landon would have enjoyed the ride over, but not at 11 o'clock at night. We may have to try it another time.

Once we were there we went to eat at the restaurant, Ketchup, it an upscale twist on American classics. Not too bad, but the service was a little slow. Also, Landon was in quite a mood at dinner, so I think that also put a damper on the experience. Nothing like taking a moody 21 month to a nice restaurant...huh???

After dinner we headed to the event area. This is the first year that the National Harbor was hosting a 4th of July event, & they had an area sectioned off for ticket holders. Andrew's parents graciously bought all of us tickets for the event. This allowed up up close seating for the fireworks and access to the children's area. There were also bands, food, & drinks.

We planted ourselves right on the water. Landon loves to watch the boats & planes, but that only kept him busy for a short bit. Andrew decided to take him on the train ride while I manned the seating section.

He loved saying "hello" to all his fans! I also took him for a ride but Andrew somehow messed up the pictures. I guess you can figure why there are many more pictures of Andrew & Landon than Landon & I...oh well.

Once we were done with the children's area, we got ready for the fireworks. Luckily, while we were waiting for ours to go off, there was another show across the River. Landon enjoyed those since there was no noise.

It was a beautiful night, no humidity, cool, but pretty windy. Can you tell by Landon's hair. The wind combined with the barge not being too far from the river bank, caused us to be hit with pieces of the fireworks. We all enjoyed the fireworks being so close, though Landon could have done without the "boom-boom".

On the 4th, we spent the day with Andrew's family before heading out to a cookout with friends. Since we were out late on the 3rd, it was nice to keep it low-key & get home at a somewhat decent hour.

We spent the evening eating...Landon loved his bar-b-que chicken. I couldn't believe how much he ate!!!! Somedays he's a great eater & then other days I feel like I'm starving him because he doesn't eat. Anyways, he loved eating at the big kid table instead of the high chair, which he initially went to when I got his food ready.

Then we set off fireworks for the kids to enjoy. All stayed on the ground, but were alot of fun to watch!

Landon liked them until they would screech & scream. I just happened to get this great picture that captured Landon's reaction to the loud fireworks!!! He wasn't much of a fan. He would run to any adult that he was near, and most of the time it wasn't us.