I love the 4th of July. I love celebrating America and always find myself emotional thinking about the freedom we enjoy in this country and the sacrifices that have been made throughout history for us to enjoy that freedom. I think we celebrate that far less often than we should.
I also find myself feeling a little homesick for Redlands whenever I spend the 4th somehwere else. I guess it's all those years of going to Sylvan Park, having swim races and ice cream at 5th Avenue and eating KFC on a blanket along the northwest curve of the track at the U of R stadium while we waited for the fireworks to start..
Although we couldn't go to Redlands, we enjoyed our day of celebration here.
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Well, except for the idiots that decided to set off their own fireworks in the parking lot after the city show, even though it was prohibited. A stray landed and went off about 1 foot away from my boys. I'm still worked up over it and what could have happened if it had landed a foot closer, which is why I'm still up and can't go to sleep. It's really probably a good thing that I never found the group that set them off.
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I'm up blogging to try and get my mind off of all that so I can go to sleep, so really this play by play of the rest of our day is more for my benefit than yours but your welcome to read it.
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We really did have a great day up until that point. We went to the ward breakfast, watched the parade (but only part of it. It was something around 100 degrees today), took naps, watched Dreamer together as a family, ditched our plans to BBQ and stopped at In-N-Out instead, went swimming, rode bikes to the park and watched the fireworks show.
The fireworks show was in a field next to the Chevron headquarters, and we were able to watch from the Chevron parking lot. It ended up being the perfect set up for us. The view was unbeatable, it was only open for Chevron employees so we beat all the crowds, and the boys (who are deathly afraid of how loud fireworks are) were able to enjoy the show from inside the van.
Matt, Liddy, and I watched from our lawn chairs next to them. Two years ago, Matt missed the whole show because he had to run out of the stadium with a terrified Garrett. Last year, Garrett stayed home with Grandpa Glauser and watched from his driveway. Now Ethan has developed a fear as well. At least this year, we were altogether!
Hope you had a wonderful celebration!
3 comments:
What a wonderful 4th! Except for the near death experiences and the 100 degree weather. And the outfits couldn't be any cuter - where is YOUR red headband with a bow, though?
Wow you guys had quite a day! I know first hand how scary fireworks can be in close range. Braydan got burned last year....I would have been raging too. :)
Once again you get the award for cute kids pictures. Looks like you had a lot of fun. I totally understand the whole afraid of the sound or fireworks thing. Last year Benjamin and Sariah spent the night inside looking out a window at the fireworks we were setting off in the back yard. This year, Benjamin became a bit of a pyro, so he was easy, but Sariah still remembered last year and it took forever before we got her outside and comfortable. In the end, the only place she felt safe was in the pool, which, by the way, was actually closer to the fireworks. Go figure.
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