We had a nice long fourth-o-july weekend visiting my sister and brother in law in Somerset, NJ. It’s a long drive but well worth it to spend time with the family and the nephews!
Jeremy is getting so big–already into the terrible twos; he can be a terror sometimes but also very lovable. He is really starting to talk now and get interested in things, like bubbles and cars.
Jake is almost 7 months now and he is a fat little sack-o-potatoes! He is a very cute, dimpled, giggly little guy.
He took a special liking to Chris and fell asleep on him a total of 10 times. He didn’t seem to like falling asleep on me as much- too lumpy for him probably…

Jeff’s daughter Alyssa was also visiting for the month from Texas. She is almost in 4th grade but she’s extremely well behaved and mature for her age. She helped out and was so good with the little ones. Jeremy is enthralled by her and is in her shadow 24-7!
On the fourth of July we went and saw fireworks in Bridgewater, NJ. They had a reggae band, which was fun to dance to. Jeremy is a natural-born reggae lover so he was having a ball. They had bouncy castles and fake tattoos for the kids too. Unfortunately just before the fireworks were set off it started pouring. We tried to seek shelter under a tree for a little while but it started to get worse, so we watched the fireworks from the car. Jeremy was so cute, oohing and aahing at everything. “Wow, the lights, I see them!” he’d say.
One thing that was VERY annoying was that we tried to leave early to beat the crowds, but the parking lot security folks wouldn’t let us. We explained to them that we had small children in the car who weren’t going to last long. They were rude and said they weren’t letting anyone out until the fireworks were over. Everyone was getting cranky and the kids were getting fussy. By the time the fireworks WERE over, everyone was in a mad rush to leave, and we waited in the parking lot for another 45 minutes to get out of there! There was NO reason why we shouldn’t have been able to leave, they had to right to trap us there. Grumble, grumble…

Saturday was unfortunately another washout, but we made the most of it by taking Alyssa and Jeremy to a children’s museum called “Imagine That”. Jeff was nice enough to stay home with Jake, who was too little to enjoy it.
The kids had a great time; Alyssa enjoyed doing art projects and exploring the displays. Jeremy loved playing with drums (anything that makes lots of noise is fun for him!), shopping in the pretend grocery store (he LOVES to organize stuff into categories), and watching a toy train go around a track. Every time the train disappeared into a tunnel, he’d yell “Hey Come back here!”. so cute 🙂

Sat. night we ate at a great Indian restaurant called “Hoysala”. It specialized in Southern Indian food, not what you’d find at your typical Indian eatery. It seemed pretty authentic (we were the only non-Indians eating there!), and they had a ton of vegetarian options. They kept bringing out appetizers for us to try. Yummy!

Sunday came all to soon. I was sad to leave my sis and the family. Living six hours away really sucks, and it’s so hard to say goodbye. I wish we all lived closer! But we try to make the most of our time together.

Jeff was nice enough to detail our car one afternoon when he got bored, and it looked snazzy shiny for our ride home! Fortunately we didn’t hit too much holiday traffic–most of the traffic seemed to be headed southbound.

we have pics of our trip posted on Flickr. you can see how big my belly has gotten, it’s really popping now!

hope everyone had a happy fourth. That’s all for now..