Fourth of July

I know that this is a bit late...but I thought I'd tell you all about Daniel's first fourth of July. We got off to a late start, but eventually decided to go to a nearby hotel to show Daniel the dolphins. We did this once before, but he got scared and screamed when the dolphins came over and opened their mouths at him. This time the trainers were out, and had the dolphins do a few tricks. Daniel loved seeing the dolphins jump out of the water. He was still a bit intimidated by the dolphins though- the only place he would watch them was in Daddy's arms.

Here he is clinging to Daddy. We tried to set him sitting in front of us, so that he could see better, but he was not a fan- guess he needed to feel safe with Daddy- it was very cute to see!

Here Daniel and I are after watching the dolphins for a while. It's so fun to watch Daniel discover the world- everything is so new and exciting for him- it gives us all a new appreciation for everyday things.

After we saw the dolphins we headed back for the car. Daniel needed to get some energy out, so we let him follow us walking- instead of getting pushed in the stroller. He loved it. He is already developing his Hawaiian feet. Mommy is not quite used to the walking thing, and is always forgetting his shoes, so he goes barefoot a lot. His feet seem to be very tough- not much bothers them. He enjoyed walking on the grass and the sand. He kept walking over to the huge palm trees and looking up at how tall they were. The walk back took a LONG time, but it was great because Daniel got to explore everything- palm trees, lights, sand, flowers, ants, sticks, and anything else he could find.

Of course it wouldn't be Fourth of July without fireworks. We went next door and had a BBQ with a lot of fireworks. In Hawaii it is popular to light off huge strings of firecrackers- strings that take about 5 minutes to pop all the way through. I thought that Daniel might get scared at how loud they were, but he loved them. He surprises me everyday with how fearless he is- this excites me and scares me at the same time! He also loved the sparklers.

Here's our baby in Daddy's arms after a very long day and night. He must have been very tired because they lit about 2 more huge fire cracker strings while he was sleeping here and he didn't even flinch. After about an hour he got up again to see a few more fireworks, and then it was off to bed with mommy. Overall it was a great Fourth of July for our little family!