July Beach Trip, day 3: July 4th!

Like many mornings after a hurricane, today started out bright and clear!  Brian wanted to go outside early, since he was worried about a moth that had been hanging out on the porch yesterday.  He didn’t know if it had made it through the storm or not.  We were amazed to see that it was alive and hanging tough (literally!) under the porch railing.  We very gently helped it find its way to freedom beyond the porch.  Brian made his own Lego creation with the new Jake and the Neverland Pirates set at the beach house, including his own instruction sheet.  Cool!  I love his drawings. 😀  We worked together on a new Lego Castle set, featuring a cool dragon (we’re pretty sure it’s the same red dragon featured in the Lego Movie!)  Brian loved the dragon, and the catapult.  He thought the set needed horses for the knights.  Unfortunately the horses only come in the gigantic King’s Castle set, and there’s only one for each side!  I might have to hit up BrickLink to get him an extra horse or two. 😉  The boys enjoyed some kayaking today, while Kendall napped.  When she woke up, Steve brought her outside to us, and she enjoyed watching Brandon take an extra lap or two, after Brian climbed up on the pier.   Afterward, we were all very hot and tired, and went in for a change of clothes and some refreshing beverages.  We put on some celebratory July 4th beads and flower leis to make it seem even more like a party.  We shared another great dinner together, with the fresh watermelon and mint-filled Oreos a hit with the kids!  The patriotic Peeps were fun for the kids, too (although the adults were roundly disinterested in those!)  We watched How to Train Your Dragon together in the evening, and the kids had fun with mini flags and even more glow sticks–red, white, and blue ones this time!  Once it was nice and dark outside, we walked down to the pier and watched the fireworks, which we could see all the way up and down the shore and the island opposite us, across the sound.