4th of July Bliss

We have been visiting the paternal grandparents and great grandparents in Pennsylvania since Saturday. Angie has thoroughly enjoyed herself and delighted the adults as always. I think that today was the grandest celebration of the 4th of July in Angie's memory.

First, Grandma, Grandpa, Chas, Angie and I went to Zoo America. Grandma has been eager to take Angie here for years. I'm not certain that Angie would have enjoyed it as much as she did today.

Angie was initially distracted by the gift shop, but we managed to persuade her that outside was good too.

She charged up a ramp with me until we noticed that one of the employees had a snake out to show kids. The family tromped back down the ramp to see the snake up close. Angie was suitably impressed and we moved on through the exhibits. Angie raced to various animals in the houses and gave them different names. We would point to animals and call Angie's attention to them. While she would say that she saw them, sometimes Chas and I got the distinct impression that she was humoring us.

We crossed over a bridge and at the end of the bridge, a park employee was dressed up like a large squirrel in a ranger costume. At least I think it was intended to be a squirrel. I didn't actually ask. It had a rather long tail.

Angie saw the ranger/squirrel and looked excited, but hesitant. This was actually the first larger than life character Angie has ever seen (we don't make the rounds to the amusement parks). Chas thought she would be scared, but I thought she would be fine.

The ranger/squirrel met another child halfway across the bridge and made the customary fuss over him as they must be trained to do. Angie looked more excited, and she kept looking at me eagerly. I asked her if she wanted to hug him and she said yes, so I told her to wait her turn and then she could hug him after the little boy had finished talking to him.

One more word of encouragement from me after the boy left with his family and Angie ran to the ranger/squirrel and was folded into a big hug. Angie was thrilled. I think my Mother in Law took a picture and Chas may have videotaped it. Angie was so excited that she later talked about it being her favorite part of the day.

We crossed the bridge and went down to a small dining area near a creek with lots of ducks. For 25 cents we could get a handful of corn and feed the ducks. I held Angie while Chas got a one handful after another of corn for Angie to throw. Then Grandma came down and provided more handfuls of corn while Chas took pictures of Angie feeding the ducks. She let me and Grandma throw some corn as well. So sweet she kept trying to give us all of the corn to throw.

Shortly after that, we went to another area near the creek and saw swans. Angie wanted to feed them too, but they were too far away.

More animals, some none of us could see, others, again, I would swear Angie was just humoring us when she said she saw them.

Back to the gift shop to spend some birthday money from Grandpa Jesse. We have a no stuffed animal clause governing our house right now (far too many of them here) and I was concerned that she carried a Beanie Bear in tropical summer gear around. Angie also kept playing with some realistic miniature animals. We settled on some animal colorforms, an animal puzzle and binoculars. Grandma then purchased a tube of realistic animals with a safari truck on top. Later at Grandma's house, Angie referred to the eagle as a condor and the beaver's name is apparently Hedgie. In short she loved it.

Grandma and Grandpa picked up Grandma Phyllis and we went to dinner at Carla's Cucina in Palmyra. The waitress let Angie pick a hand and pulled out a small gorilla for Angie. Did you know that gorillas are afraid of Bowl Worms? Or that Bowl Worms looks just like spoons? The Bowl Worms chased the Gorilla along the back of my chair several times before dinner ended.

Angie and Grandma Phyllis had the same dinner: spaghetti with one very large meatball. We also discovered that Angie gets her love of ice cream and aversion to all other sweets from her Grandma Phyllis.

Then we drove to Grandma Ethyl and Grandpa Jesse's home to show them what she purchased with their gift money.

As we drove back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, we could see people lining up to watch the fireworks. We've never taken Angie to a Fireworks display. Our plan this year was the same as last year: show Angie whatever fireworks appeared above the trees in Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood (it's a really small town).

When the fireworks started, Chas, Grandma, Angie and I walked to the end of the street and down the cross road a bit. Grandpa soon followed although he had to work very early the next morning. Angie sat an Chas's shoulders for a bit and seemed pleased with the view. Perhaps the trees grew a great deal since last year, or maybe this year, they just weren't shooting them as high, but we didn't see as many as we did last year.

Some of the neighbors were shooting small fireworks or low to the ground sparklers (Sorry I don't know the technical names). Angie liked those too.

Angie became more and more excited. She was racing around the street (with us watching closely of course and pull her back as needed) shouting, "I love fireworks! The fireworks look like BIG FLOWERS!" over and over again, much to our amusement and to the laughter of some neighbors. Then she looked at us and said, "I wish they could go for hours and hours and hours!" At one point she waived her arms so enthusiastically that they were a blur (imagine hummingbird wings and you will have the most accurate visual image).

She had a great Fourth of July. I don't think we could have packed more fun into one day.