Twigg Family: 4th of July Vacation

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. I have such fond memories of past 4th of July celebrations. I remember growing up in West Lafayayette, IN watching fireworks going off over the Wabash river. I can still hear the "whir whir" of the ice cream maker going in the background of 4th of July picnics. Then there were the fireworks at home - sparklers and bottle rockets and the ones that spun around and round. Such great memories.

Thankfuly these memories continue into my adult life as well. John's family also makes a big deal of the 4th of July, although the celebration changes from year to year. There are usually picnics with family and friends, parades and fireworks at Yorktown. There was the year that we found out that Chelsei and Jeremy were dating - and they just celebrated their 2nd wedding anniversary a few weeks ago! Another 4th of July my best friend Tabitha - who I grew up with and now we have little girls just days apart in age- got to come for a visit along with her husband Rusty. I love my 4th of July memories.

This year we got to do a little something different. My mom flew out to Virginia from Indiana and then along with the kids and myself, took a little road trip up to my Aunt Liz's house in Lewes, DE. What a fun weekend for us!

We got up very early and left from my house at 5 am in order to beat holiday traffic though the tunnels. Here is a picture of the sun rising that I took at a pull off on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel . In my 11 years living in this area I have never gone to see a sunrise over the ocean so this was very special for me. What a great way to start a vacation!

As we traveled up the Eastern Shore we decided to visit Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. We had the pleasure of two different pony sightings. As a girl growing up I loved the books about Misty of Chincoteague so it is so much fun to be able to visit these places and see the wild ponies roaming free.

Here is one pony that we think was pregnant.

The next group of ponies had three foals with them. So sweet.

The town of Lewes, DE is the first town in the first state. Kind of a cool claim to fame. They had such a fun day of activites on July 4th in the town and we loved the chance to be part of the festivities. We started out the day on 2nd street. There was face painting, balloons, lots of fun free stuff for the kids, and games for ages 4 and up. There was a fire truck there which the kids loved. Here is a picture of my Aunt Liz, Nathan, Elizabeth and myself in front of the fire truck.

Here is Elizabeth in her 4th of July dress and fire hat.

Nathan loved climbing around inside the fire truck.

We watched some of the games including a sack race and a three legged race. I was not sure if Nathan would be interested in the games at all or not but I have found him several times hopping around in bags pretending to be one of the kids in the race, so I guess he did like the games!

Later on in the day there was a "Doo-Dah" parade. What fun! Here are my mom and the kids watching as the parade is going by.

My kids really hit the jackpot with the candy at this parade. Elizabeth was shoving it all in her mouth just as fast as she could. I think she was afraid that I wasn't going to let her take it with her once the parade was over. "No candy left behind" was her moto!

Here she is after the parade. Candy stained face and beads. Who could ask for anything better?

Finally, time for fireworks! We headed down to the beach to watch fireworks. It was a beautiful night, perfect temperature and a beautiful sunset. We even got to see a school of dolphins as we waited! The kids did very well waiting for the fireworks.

My mom and Elizabeth waiting for the sun to go down.