Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!  In Albania, the 4th of July isn't celebrated quite the way we are used to, but we made do.  To our good fortune, the American Chamber of Commerce decided to put on an Independence Day Picnic/Celebration.  There were hot dogs and hamburgers (not fully cooked through, to Sean's dismay), entertainment for the kids and lots of decorations.  We didn't stay for too much of it since Asher had to get to bed, so we didn't get to see the fireworks, but that's ok considering they have fireworks going off every other night of the week here :)  It was good to go and feel festive and enjoy a good night out.  Since it was pretty much past Asher's bedtime, he wasn't really in the smiling mood, but here are a couple shots of our little guy!

 

On the actual 4th of July, to our good fortune, our good friends came back from their camping trip early and invited us to go to the beach with them.  Our last trip to a beach didn't hold the best of memories, but we decided to give it another try and joined them.  It was the GREATEST beach trip and we are sooo happy we went.  Asher was fantastic!  The beach was beautiful!  The water perfect! And the company was wonderful!  The drive to the beach included some rough and somewhat steep dirt roads, but the scenery around us was gorgeous.

After our bumpy drive, we made it to the beach!  It was beautiful and so much fun.  The water was shallow for quite the distance so the older kids had a blast. 

  

Brave little Asher - he went out into the water by his own choice!
We're so glad he likes the beach now!

Our excellent Costco purchase - Asher & Jonas loved the beach toys!

 



Asher and his buddy, Jonas

 

Asher decided to sneak a handful of sand while I was taking the picture, yummmm

 

mmmm sand :)

 I wish we had taken a picture of him about 3 minutes after we got in the car, because he fell asleep so quickly.  After the beach it was off to AFC - Albanian Fried Chicken - for a late lunch.  I had forgotten the camera in the car, but we got a picture of the AFC box at home so everyone could appreciate how well we celebrated the 4th the American, I mean the Albanian way :)

Happy 4th of July everyone!  We hope you had as good of a day as we had!