Sweet P Gracie: Almost 4 hour nap worth of July 4th fun...

We were so lucky to have an amazing day celebrating the 4th of July. The day started off so nice with a good church service at the Greeley Stampede, Cowboy church to be exact, with Uncle Brad. The early start allowed us to stay away from the heat, walk around without crowds and be the first to the petting zoo and pony rides.

After the party last weekend with pony rides you would have thought Gracie would be old hat at the rides. Sadly I had to bribe her with a lollipop to get her on the horse. She loved every min of it though and worked our appetite up for any type of food you would want on a stick. Brad got a pork chop on a stick while we stayed pretty normal and even had to work at Gracie to enjoy a funnel cake. She is easily distracted while in public places with lost of people.

Next was to the carnival section of the facility. Uncle Brad wins so often on the games that involved any bit of skill. The guy practically wins anything and always did, even a robin hood bear for his kid sister years ago at Circus Circus. So, now he was able to pay it forward to his niece. He was able to get a ball into a bucket winning Gracie a Monkey almost the same size as she is. After all that adventure she feel asleep within 1 minute of leaving the grounds and slept for almost 3 1/2 hours during nap time.

The Stampede is so tiring...

With renewed energy we decided to take a trip to the local fair in Firestone. They had some good younger kid-friendly rides that we enjoyed. Here we are in the Gracie/Monkey car of the train. Since there are so many trains near the farm she has a new ear to hear the horns and looks for them often.

Since she was too small for the cars we opted for the carousel instead. Grandpa got selected as the approved adult to join her on a solo ride around, the crowds weren't bad at all.

With the new found knowledge bestowed by Brad to his sister I decided to take a chance at winning Gracie a toy myself. There was no way I could get any new stuffed toy that would even compete with the monkey so I tired for a goldfish. There were doubts on my ability to win such a game of chance, which is partially was, but I got the ping-pong ball in the bowl and won Gracie a fish. Though it wasn't expensive to win I am helping the US economy by buying all things to keep this stinker alive, which Gracie named Tank. I first suggested Henry, which could have been confusing since Henry is the Octopus in Wiggles, so I changed to Hank...again could be confusing with her Papa J, so she then said Tank. It has stuck and we will see how long this guy lives in the peanut plastic tub he is in now. Here she is hugging Tank, prior to being named, after trying to kiss him and play with him. Oh yes, he also danced on the way home...the poor fish probably got sea sick from the movement.

We luckily beat the rain home, which was a blessing since it has been raining on/off for the past two plus hours. It was so nice and relaxing. Dinner was our own indoor bbq with hot dogs, corn, and root beer floats.

For your entertainment: Evolution of Gracie's Root beer Float.