4th of July Weekend and a Little One's Birthday

Hey there. Did everyone have a safe and wonderful weekend? Our weekend started on Friday. Our policy at work allows us to take a day off from the work week if a holiday lands in the weekend. Because Independence Day came on a Saturday, we took Friday off. Knowing this, we scheduled a 4D ultrasound for Friday morning. What an experience! I've never been to one of those before and after we registered and what not, we were led to a room with a big screen TV. The kids and I sat on the couch while the ultrasound tech did her thing. It was crazy to see our little on the big screen. The kids loved it. They thought it was neat the way we were able to finally see the little one. First of all, we noticed that he has chubby cheeks. I think all babies do, but it was pretty apparent from the ultrasound. Secondly, he refused to let us have a good view of his face. He had his arms up the whole time, partially blocking his face. He let them down only a few times and allowed a good shot here and there but it was surprising to us that he was asleep during this time. Of course, he's been kicking away for days, so of course.... the one day we were gonna see him, he decided to sleep in. lol Check out one of the pics. He so looks like a boxer with his arms up. It's so surreal to see him well before his due date.

Afterwards, we sped off to my mother in law's to show the grandparents the pics. They were thrilled. From there, we went to Babies R Us to register. We tried to make it a family affair, where everyone helped in selecting some of the items that would be good for the baby and us. It didn't work out so well... The kids rushed us from every angle holding up items that they all believed would be great for the baby. "Mommy, look at this", "Daddy check this out"... They didn't really allow us to discuss the items to see if we'd like them before they rushed us again with more items. lol We decided that it would have been better if they stayed at grandma's so that we can think out and the items. lol They got the hint after a short while and settled down. We then scanned items that we would consider buying ourselves. It seemed wrong to us to just walk down the isle and scan everything in our sight. That seemed to be the mentality of other expectant couples that were there. We tried to be considerate. We decided that when we register at places, we're going to through in a few gag gifts. Babies R Us is a pretty straight forward place so the only thing that could be considered a gag there was a Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit game. We scanned them, thinking that no one in their right mind would buy them. lol I'm going to laugh if some one does. We're also planning on registering at Target and we've thought out some gag gifts to scan there, which include, but are not limited to condoms, KY Jelly, and other "naughty" things of that nature. lol Our registry number is 94458364 at BabiesRUs. If anyone cares to check it out and get us something, many thanks! We'll greatly appreciate it. We then went back to my mother in law's for my brother in law's birthday party. We were pretty tired by then but ended up staying pretty late. My mother and brother showed up so we ended up hanging out with them for most of the evening. We also chatted it up with some of my wife's cousin's who we don't get to see often. Fun fact: One of my wife's cousins know my cousin from where they both worked together many years ago. Small world, no?

Saturday was our little one's birthday, also knows as Independence Day in the states. We decided that we were going to go down to Long Beach and catch the firework show that will shown near the Queen Mary. The morning didn't start off to well. My cousin called to say that he would be there to early to get a good spot. I figured that he'd get the spot so we didn't really needed to be there that early so we'd leave the house around noon and we'll be good. Bad move. We ended up leaving at noonish, after making a trip to Target (sunscreen and what not) and the market for ice, we didn't officially head off to the beach until about 12:30 or so. Freeway traffic was light, but because we got wrong directions, we headed off in the wrong directions... TWICE! We went over two massive bridges and I know we were not going to to the beach. After I called my bro and he gave me the correct directions, we finally made it to the beach... ONLY FIND CARS BUMPER TO BUMPER AND NO PARKING SPACES IN SIGHT!!! I was frustrated. Time being close to 1:30 or so, I was upset that we were still in the car and not at the beach. The beach is no more than 15 mins away from my house so for us to take that long to get there was extremely frustrated. I told my family, if we don't find a parking spot in 15 mins, we're going home. Yup, it was that bad, friends. It seemed like god heard me at that point because right in front of us, some guy left his house and jumped in his car and left. We pulled in and took his spot. We had to walk 3 huge blocks, carrying all our beach stuff. It took us almost another 20 mins just to get to the spot. It was worth it though. The kids had a blast and that's what my wife and I wanted. I also heard the news of Steve McNair's death from my brother, who was checking it out from his phone. Sad, sad news. After checking it out on my phone, and reading up on it, I decided that I'll check it out on SportCenter later, since I don't want to spend the day looking for updates. I'm like that sometimes. lol Check out some of the pics from the event.
Out night ended with us standing on the shore watching the firework show. We were too busy checking them out to take any pics of that. Kinda a bummer but it's ok. Traffic on the way home was hell... Again, only 15 min drive from the beach ended up being closer to an hour because of all the cars being dread locked. And to top it off... My wife and I had to go to the restroom. When we finally made it home, we both rushed into restrooms. I thanked our lucky stars that we have two restrooms at home. lol

When Sunday morning rolled around, I declared it "Not Going to do Shit Day". All of our bodies were not up to do much. My kids complained that their arms and legs hurt, I complained about it, and my wife was too tired to complain. lol We all decided to take it easy and just watch movies and nap. Good times. lol

We had us an eventful weekend. How was all of yours?