Independence Day

Ah! The Fourth of July!  A day of celebrating that starts early and ends late and makes everyone just a big cranky and exhausted.  But between the early start and late end, everyone has a great time fêting our country by parading, eating, swimming, and fireworking.  It's all just a day-long party.  

Really, our celebrating began yesterday, the third.  We gathered with the DeMartinis in the afternoon for a swim and had a marvelous good time.  We had snowcones, ordered Bamboo Hut chicken, noodles, and wontons, had salad and grapes, and ate with the immediate Cox family on the driveways between the houses. 

 

 

 

 

Normally, we would have the big Cul-de-sac of Fire on the Fourth, but very reasonably, Christopher decided not to do a huge show.  Instead, he got a reasonable amount of fireworks (I say that, but it was still a ridiculously large pile when they were all unloaded from the trailer), and we lit them off on the third, just with those in the cul-de-sac.   The Bodily/Ogles, who live next to Grandma Sue, came out to watch, and the Christensens were there, too, but not the 2,000+ other people who were there last year.  It was all very civilized.  

This really is just a small amount of fireworks.

Funky double exposure.  

I don't know how I did that.

For some reason, no pictures of Blythe and sparklers.

Today's activities pretty much followed last year's.  I stayed up until the wee hours along the parade route.  I was at the Davis' office with Elizabeth Elder and McKenzie Drake, and we talked and talked and talked.  We didn't have to shoo anyone away, and we were relieved of our duty about 3:00am by Mike Drake and Jake Thornock.  I came home and slept until about 7:30 when we all got up, had some breakfast, and then made our way down to the parade.  We had excellent seats right on the curb and in the shade, and were joined by Eugene and Sharae and their crew, and lots of ward members.  The parade was good, though the gaps between excitement are frequently much to large.  How come one group can't keep up with the group in front of them?  

We returned home and I began preparing afternoon food.  I was making ice cream and gathering the fixings for guacamole.  Everything is better with homemade ice cream and guacamole, although homemade guacamole ice cream doesn't sound wonderful.  When food was prepped, we went over to Grandma Sue's for swimming.  We swam and swam, and then we ate and ate.  Good fun followed by good food.  We had tri-tip, fruit and potato salad, and homemade root beer followed by the homemade ice cream.  It was a lovely evening.  

As a result of the activities last night, we drove home shortly after the Stadium of Fire began (so as to avoid traffic), and hung around somewhat lazily until it was dark and getting closer to the big firework time.  We went over around 10:00pm to Sertoma Park with our lawn chairs, intending to watch the big fireworks.  We weren't there ten minutes before Blythe said she wanted to go home, Brandt followed her lead, and they both disappeared into the darkness.  Kent and I bundled up the chairs and blanket, bits and bobs from Blythe's glow sticks, and headed home.  The fireworks began just before I got home, a few minutes after the children and Kent, and we didn't even bother to step outside and see what we could see from in front of the house.  We were all wiped out from all the fun.

*cue patriotic music*  We do enjoy such wonderful freedoms.  So many who serve in the armed forces sacrifice so much so we can continue to enjoy our liberty, and I feel so grateful to live in the United States.  I'm grateful for the faithfulness of the early Founding Fathers and Mothers, who believed in our fledgling country and wanted to make something great.  They were remarkable people who did remarkable things, and I live a privileged life as a result.  *patriotic music over*

Blythe had more fun than her face indicates.

The passing by of all the missionaries.

It's always so exciting to see so many of them marching (on to glory?).