The Dunlap Daily Dish: Fourth of July with the Stoddard's

Auntie Sethrina is one of our family's all-time favorite people in the whole wide world. In fact, Hudson has renamed our guest room "Sethrina's Room," since she's already stayed there three times in the few months we've lived here! We all adore that girl. She and her equally wonderful husband, Josh, stayed with us for the Fourth of July and made it a holiday weekend to remember. Here are some highlights from their visit:

Jul 4

We gave Joshy-poo a tour of our new home. It's still so exciting to show the house to new people! We are still in love!
We went to the West Mesa Aquatic Center for the first time. It was AH-MAH-ZING! I would recommend that place to anyone living in Albuquerque. Two of the pools are beach grade, so they're non-intimidating for the little ones, and the water slides are windy, fun, and fantastic! They made me feel young again! (I needed that, as Hudson has been calling me old lately - sheesh!) I even got to swim a few laps while everyone else watched the kiddos. It was awesome!
We had a teensy lunch at Del Taco as a walk down memory lane for Josh, who worked there in his youth. Oh my heavens - another place I'd recommend for anyone with children. They have little quesadillas for 50 cents!
We enjoyed a to-die-for barbecue at my folk's house, which left me practically comatose from all of the food: BBQ ribs, teriyaki meatballs, grilled to perfection steak, roasted potatoes, rice, mom's famous salad, gorgeous fruit salad, watermelon, corn-on-the-cob, brownies, PB squares ... and I'm sure more. We had a great time playing Guesstures and Idiot with my parents and Sam and Kiley.
We watched ABQ's firework show from I-25 and Paseo. We sat on the hood of our car and enjoyed the rain and thunder along with the beautiful show.
We ended the evening with a fine movie: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. I think the boys made it to the end ... I wouldn't really know though, as I was sleeping!

Guesstures!

Uncle Josh making Hudson's day

My hunk of burning love!

Babies!

Something's freaking out the babies!

We were having way more fun than this picture makes it seem

With those blue eyes, he could easily be theirs!

Enjoying the show with Papa

Fun night

Cute newly weds

Jul 5

We took the tram to the top of the Sandias. It's so expensive to do that, but the views are gorgeous, and the ride is pretty fun. We had wanted to hike up there, but sadly, the forests were all closed due to fire danger and drought. Boo!
For lunch, we hit up Sethrina's favorite ABQ restaurant: Dion's! It's true - those subs are incredible. That Greek dressing is out of this world.
I was super stressed about the evening because we had committed to go to a concert in a friend's backyard, and I was going to leave Beau with a babysitter for the first time! There was so much leading up to that night - I had to find a babysitter I felt comfortable with, call her in advance, make sure we had cash to pay her, make sure there was adequate food in the fridge for the babysitter and Hudson, make sure the baby was fed right before we left ... oh man! It was a lot of orchestrating for one evening out! But it was SOOOOOOO worth it!!!! All you married people with kids need to invest in some babysitting! It will make you feel so youthful to get out with your hubs, kid-free! It was also pretty trippy being the mom and not the babysitter.
The concert was AAAAWESOME! Our friends hired their favorite band, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, to play in their back yard. It started raining before the band started to play, so everyone huddled under the patio and got an up-close-and-personal concert. It was the most fun I've had with Sebastian in years! We danced, we sang, we soaked in the rain. We ate tons of glorious Mexican food! (I also got but by a dog - freaky, huh?) Thank you Randy and Michelle for a wonderful night!

Fun times

Hudson photo bombed their pic!

I love all the men in my life!

Seb's favorite little sis

A nice lady gave me a bottle of water ... I must've looked pretty pathetic in that hot sun with my two babies

Beau is a daddy's boy

I adore that man of mine!

Oh, we are so in love!

Jul 6

We started the day with a trip to the movie theater to see Despicable Me 2. I was so impressed that little Beauie Man slept though half of it and watched half of it. Funny baby.
That afternoon, we went to the dog park with Langley (Sethrina's black lab) and spent some time chilling in the grass.
We had a yummy New Mexican lunch at Twisters. Josh's burrito plate looked like something off of Man vs. Food. It was enormous.
After the boys went to bed, we played some cards outside, Sethrina made lemon squares and brownies, and we watched Independence Day. A nice end to our holiday weekend. Happy birthday, America!