Independence Day in the Sweetest Place On Earth

This year, like the past 8 years, we went to Hershey for Independence Day.  It was much different from last year when Anna was only 7 months old and fell asleep for the fireworks.  This year we went to ZooAmerica, did some shopping at the Hershey Outlets and come playing on the playground, went out to dinner, went to Chocolate World and lastly went to the fireworks at 10:00.  Annalise was absolutely exhausted!  She fell asleep as soon as we got in the truck to leave (at around 10:45), slept the whole way home, slept while I changed her diaper and clothes and put her in her crib when we got home and then slept until 9:00 the next morning!  Now that I think about it I don't think that she has ever been up until 10:45 at night!  We had an awesome day!

All ready for ZooAmerica!

Checking out one of her new favorite animals....

...the alligator!  She talks about alligators a lot lately.  She is always looking for them (?) and today she trip on a small log near Stan's woodpile in the yard and said it was an alligator that bites.  Not sure where the new alligator obsession came from.

Anna and the alligator

Pointing out one of my LEAST favorite animals, a parrot.

She really liked this little Collared Lizard and kept going over and talking to it!

"Bears, where are you?"

"Nope, no bears from this angle either!" 

They were actually fast asleep underneath shade tree outside.

Touching a little turtle

Playing on the playground at the outlets.

"Hi, Daddy!"

"Peek-a-Boo, Mommy!"

On the slide with Daddy

In Chocolate World

Last year we took her picture with one of these big chocolate bars and she didn't really care about it at all.  This year she was all curious and kept grabbing at it.  I was afraid she was going to break it and I really didn't want to buy it!

Well, this was as good as it got!  I was too nervous that we might end up having to buy it.

On the ride at Chocolate World.  She LOVED the singing cows in the beginning and at the end.  We must have been past that point when this picture was taken =).

To watch the fireworks, you have to get there early to get a good spot.  In a "good spot", you not only can see the fireworks well, but you are able to get a quick getaway at the end.  Over the past 8 years we have seemed to perfect this.  This was the best year yet for us as far as the parking goes.  One year we literally were stuck in traffic for at least an hour before we even made it off of Hershey Park Drive!  This year we were out of there in about 15 minutes!  Anyway, we new that this year corraling Anna might be somewhat of an issue especially since the fire works were at 10:00 and we knew we would need to park at least an hour and a half before.  We decided to take the truck which worked out really well because Annalise and I played and read books in the bed of the truck while we were waiting.  She was great!  She also amused herself for quite awhile by "cleaning Daddy's truck".  She asked for a wipe when I got them out and then made her way around the bed cleaning it.  You see some of her cleaning efforts above!

The later it got, the sillier she got!

"Cleaning" the windows

Silly again!

Yep, getting sillier and it was getting later.

Finally, she settled down to watch the fireworks.  I was interested to see what her reaction to them was going to be.  Last year, she slept through them.  This year she watched them quietly and all she really said about them in the beginning was "Ooooooo, they loud".

What a GREAT 4TH!