Mr. Independence

We just had Levi's first 4th of July and he had quite the day! We started with an early morning wake-up call at 6 AM. After some breakfast, we ran/walked a 5 k race in downtown Puyallup. Jeff ran, I walked, and Levi rolled! We learned that we are very out of shape, but we had fun and then headed home for a nap.
Auntie Melissa bought some cute overalls for Levi which he wore for the race and the first half of the day until he had drooled so much that they had to go. Here is a cute picture. He was a hit at the race and I'm pretty sure he came in first in his age group...although he may have been the only one in his age group.
After a quick nap, we got ready for the big 4th of July bash. Linda and Mickey Allen, who we are living with, take 4th of July very seriously. They have a huge BBQ of baby back ribs and chicken, salads, and desserts galore. After dinner the craziness begins. This involves blowing up everything in sight with sparkler bombs, $200 worth of fireworks, and they live on top of a huge hill so the whole valley is lit up with fireworks. It is pretty cool.
Such an extravagant party called for another cute outfit. And of course some more pictures.
As you can see there are no pictures of Jeff. This is because he was very busy. Linda's son Justin usually does all the grilling, makes the sparkler bombs, and lets off the fireworks. However, he had to work an 18 hour shift that day so he passed the torch to Jeff. So Jeff was busy all day, although it was all things he loves to do.
Overall it was a success, everybody ate, everything was blown up, and we all enjoyed the show. Levi even liked it and didn't even cry at the sparkler bombs. He actually slept through most of it. Wait until next year. He'll be next to daddy trying to blow things up and I will just have to not watch.