Wednesday, July 8, 2009

4th of July Weekend

This 4th of July fell on a Saturday so we celebrated all weekend.

On Friday the 3rd, we partied with our friends Michael and Kristi and their daughter, E. There was sure cause for celebration as E had a cast removed from her leg that very morning and this was her very first swimming experience!

Burrito has not been a lover of water ever since swim lessons at ages 2 and 3. In fact, John and I were dreading the whole swimming experience with him so much that we decided to buy life jackets for the boys that morning to see if this would help them have any more confidence in the water. And it worked! We were so proud of both of them. They were jumping in the water without assistance, going under water and learning to navigate the water with their life jackets on. It was such an improvement over last summer when Noodle and Burrito both clung to us with a death grip and cried the entire time they were in the water.
Check out the happiness on this former hater of water's face! A true miracle of the Lord! Ha!

After swimming Michael grilled up some yummy burgers, we ate and then watched fireworks from their second story balcony. It was so fun and relaxing that I think we should make it an annual tradition, okay Michael and Kristi???? :)
So on Saturday the 4th of July, we went to my parents house to do and watch fireworks. My parents now live in my grandparents' former house and so this is the house I have spent almost every 4th of July at my entire life. It is so crazy out there! Those people love their fireworks! Starting around dusk, there is not a moment of silence to be heard. There is constant noise as firecrackers and fireworks are going off everywhere.
My new camera actually has a setting for taking pictures of fireworks that I've never had the opportunity to use before. These pictures were taken before I realized that there is a delay in taking the picture so they are a little blurry, but I think they turned out sort of neat that way!

We like to buy a few fireworks and then benefit from others' expense of buying lots of fireworks and watching theirs! We set up our lawn chairs right in the street and enjoy the free show. John had fun doing our fireworks....Noodle and Burrito, not so much. It didn't help that in the first 10 seconds of doing sparklers, Noodle touched the end of the sparkler after it had burnt out but while it was still hot and burnt his thumb. You would have thought his finger had been chopped off, poor guy! But Burrito got brave in the end and decided to try out the sparklers again. All in all, it was a fun time with family and celebrating our freedom.
The boys in the picture below are closely examining a firework that the big boys did that turned into a "snake" as it burned. Burrito is looking at it with his flashlight and Noodle looks a little apprehensive.
The picture below depicts our grand finale.....a firework that John was told would last for 5 minutes, that actually lasted about 30 seconds and cost $16! Sorry you got duped!
On Sunday the 5th, we went to our beloved church and then set out to pack for our trip to visit John's family in Missouri. Stay tuned for our fun adventures there!

1 comment:

Colored With Memories said...

oh man! this makes me wish we had done sparklers with the girls. minus the burns of course!

and girl, i have experienced those death grips in the pool. they can be painful! glad they are enjoying it now...what a relief!