Summer has been in full swing over here lately. We celebrated the 4th of July with some wonderful friends and fabulous food. I couldn’t have asked for a better party, except for maybe better fireworks. For those of you who don’t know, Fireworks are illegal in California, except for the city we live in, Dublin. So Mark and I went and bought a box of fireworks to light off since there are no firework shows around here and I didn’t want to drive all the way to San Francisco to watch their show when I had work in the morning. One of the few things I really miss about Idaho is their amazing firework show on the river. It’s so patriotic and will always be a bright memory for me. Anyways, long story short, we had to take our fireworks to a “designated safe zone” which was really a giant catastrophe waiting to happen!

We also made it to the Alameda County Fair! I sure love this place and all the crazies it brings! I could people watch all day, just give me a big ol’ corn dog and set me on a bench and I’ll be happy, however, I will require funnel cake later! Mark’s oldest brother Dave and his wife Lauren (yes, Lauren Warren!) came to visit for the week with their 3 hilarious and sweet girls. (did I mention we have a lot of nieces?) I had a great time walking through the animal section of the fair with them. They wanted to see every single bunny, there were about 500…my arms got quite the workout from lifting each girl to see each bunny. Later we met up with some friends and went on one ride, because each ride cost $5 a person! But this ride was definitely worth the 10 bucks, even Mark had a blast, which is a large task because he is only thrilled by Six flags in Southern California. We went on the swings that rose a good 100 feet in the air. At the end of the night we got to enjoy a beautiful firework show, which made up for the lack thereof the day before. All in all, it was a successful fair day!