The Fourth of July

We had a great family Fourth of July this year I must admit. The plan was to grill out burgers, cut up watermelon, pop a few small firecrackers in the driveway and head to the closest station casino to watch their huge 9 minute display at 9:30. What ended up happening was so much better! We grilled out hamburgers and I made fried potatoes, we saved the watermelon for Sunday, we bought a large pack of fireworks to pop in the driveway ...


... and instead of heading to the station casino to watch their display we watched all the neighbors pop their very large illegal fireworks! We had at least 6 neighbors surrounding us popping off HUGE displays, it was awesome. Summer did so well with everything, she was very safe and stated safely away from the fireworks and she did amazing staying up so late past her bedtime.

In the beginning when the first fireworks were popping Summer would scream like a little girl and run into her daddy's arms - it was so precious.


At first she was all concerned with the loud sounds and lights but was amazed at the same time. After a while she was fine with everything going on but still liked to squeal and run to daddy so he could protect her. I wanted to get a good picture of Summer holding a sparkler but they are so dangerous so I had daddy hold it and stand right behind her to get a few night time sparkler pictures.




At about 9:30 Summer had had enough, she was tired and ready to go to sleep. Even with all the popping still going on around the neighborhood she fell asleep as soon as her little head hit the pillow. She also slept in on Sunday so we got an extra 30 minutes of beauty rest, can you really ask for anything else?

I think we all had a great time, the food was delicious, the fireworks were amazing and we were surrounded by so many great displays from our neighbors, Summer enjoyed being outside with all of us while looking at the bright lights in the sky ... when she would look, I don't really think she was as impressed as I was, I kept telling her to look, "Look Summer Look" while I pointed into the night sky but for the most part she was not interested, instead opting to play on the blanket next to me or try to take a drink out of my cup while spilling most of it on her shirt. Still, we all had a great night and enjoyed the show.

My favorite photo of the night was this one of Kris holding a sparkler. I think it looks neat the way the light shined on his hand.