4th of July

For 4th of July weekend we headed down to Escondido to stay with the Nelsons. Jeff, Mike and Justin went to the Padres game on Saturday while I spent the day shopping at the Exchange and Commissary with Amy, Ashley and Francy. We then stayed up late preparing food...the time consuming cakepops! I am so glad Francy and Amy helped me make the balls because we sure made a ton! But they turned out super cute!

I also made black bean avocado dip (I am going to post pics and recipe for that later!) and a strawberry, blueberry and blackberry trifle. 

The kids loved the cakepops! 

Amy and Emmerson:

Hanging out before everyone showed up:

The party was lots of fun until around 4:00 when our dogsitter called to tell us that Shadow was missing. She had him and several other dogs walking a on a trail at a state park near her house when a something spooked all the dogs and Shadow took off. She has kept him many, many times and usually doesn't keep him on a leash because he always stays so close to her. This time something happened (we are all thinking it was fireworks) that freaked him out. So Jeff and I drove about an hour up to her house and searched for him until 10pm. He had his tags on with our phone numbers so we were sure someone would call any second to say they found him. Around 10 it was dark and we were drained so we drove back to the Nelsons. I was starting to think we wouldn't see him again. I thought most likely someone grabbed him and wanted to keep him for themselves. :( Well at 7am we got a wonderful call from the dog sitter. Shadow had found his way home and was on her front porch just standing there when she opened the door. Such a relief! So we spent the 5th just relaxing at the Nelsons, which was great knowing Shadow was back safe with his dogsitter!