A 4th of July/Daniel's birthday post

Before heading up to Portland to look for a house we stayed in the Bay Area for a few days. We thought it would be fun to spend the 4th with family, especially since it was also Daniel's birthday.

This 4th of July ended up being rather historic and meaningful for us as we were able to attend the City of Alameda 4th of July parade for the first time! It is a tradition for all of my family members that live in the Bay Area to attend this parade, sandwiched in between a ward potluck breakfast beforehand and a family BBQ afterward.

It was a great year to attend, as my sister's congregation entered a float in the parade for the first time! Didn't they do a great job? Notice the replica of the Oakland Temple on the front



It was wonderful for the kids to get to be with their cousins again. So many of the floats threw out candy as they passed by, and these guys made out like bandits

My sister put on a great BBQ and we brought a pinata to help celebrate Daniel's birthday



Afterwards we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa Sorensens for present opening. Thank you so much to everyone who helped Daniel feel so special!

All in all a wildly successful trip for us in that we got to be with so many loved ones and we bought a house to boot! Now I just need to convince my pregnant body that all that traveling wasn't really that big a deal...