Independence Day

Do you have words that you ALWAYS have to think about when spelling?  Independence is definitely one of those for me (as is definitely).  You think I'd learn.  Moving along...

Let me paint for you a picture of our Moreno 4th of July.  First, after rising at 5 am to go exercise, shower, and whip up a super healthy breakfast, we spent the morning reading articles and tributes to our forefathers.  

Just kidding.  Here's what really happened.  Raquel let us lazily sleep in until 8 (yahoo!), we overate an incredibly delicious (aka unhealthy) breakfast, we slowly got ready, and then spent the morning shopping.  Yeah, that sounds more like us.  (Though we are extremely grateful for our forefathers.)

After getting our food assignments ready, we popped over to the McGarys to BBQ along with said McGarys, Mohlmans, and Mallary.

We again ate too much, but I'm pretty sure that's what holidays are for, right?  Then we headed over to a grassy spot near some apartments in Upland to watch fireworks.  Can you believe these were the FIRST fireworks I've seen in 4 years?  You read me right.  We haven't gone to see fireworks in our entire California lifetime.  We're so lame.  We weren't incredibly close to the actual firework show, but they were still magical to watch and quiet enough not to frighten my girlie.

Stars & Stripes

Thanks to awesome friends, we got to have two BBQs for the 4th of July.  We spent the first part of the day as just the Moreno 3 and then the second half with our pals.

Summertime Visitors

After waiting months and months, I finally got to see some of my family again when they came to visit us here in sunny California.  My sister Charisse's family, Mom, Dad, & Dave all came which meant I got 10 days of visitors!  It has been pretty crazy around here.

Naturally, we started off our fun in the sun.  (Don't look at Luis's legs...he's pretty self-conscious of how white they look.)

Later, some of us crashed...

...some of us cooked...

...some of us played...

...and some of us read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom all alone.

The Fourth of July at Newport Beach

We had the fun idea to spend the 4th at the beach.  We knew it would be crowded, but never anticipated driving around for 1 1/2 hours looking for a parking spot.  It was nightmarish.  When we finally decided to give up and go home, a spot magically opened up.  So we stayed.

At night, we skipped out on fireworks, and instead popped some poppers and ate firecracker popsicles.



We also spent more time at the pool, Heritage Park, and church, but I guess I didn't get pictures of those.

Disneyland
On Day 5 of the vacation, our second batch of visitors arrived and we headed off to Disneyland!  It was so much fun to be there with kids...especially ones who constantly asked to ride with me on every ride.  You know you're on kiddie rides when the wait is only 15 minutes.  It was quite refreshing!

This may be my favorite picture of the trip.  Doesn't Lily's nap look comfortable?

That first night of Disneyland fun, I stayed with my family at the hotel while Luis stayed at our apartment since he still had one more day of work.  Since our wedding, I have never spent a night away from him and I HATED it!  Luckily brother Davey was there to comfort me.

Lu had never been to Toontown before so we made sure to stop there.  And yes, that is Davey dancing behind us. 

You can tell we all had a great time the entire day!

On the last night with everyone, we ate at one of the restaurants.  It was yummy and something I've never done before in Disneyland.

The last day of Disneyland was only the Medicos and I.  We had taken so many pictures the other three days, that I only ended up with one on this day.

I loved having my family here to visit me.  Of course, I've been a mess since they left - crying on and off throughout the days - but I'm sure that will pass.

So, who's next, dear family?