Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy 4^th! Independence Day. The day is marked noting our independence as a country. We celebrated having hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and pineapple upside-down cake. My family and friends came over to watch our fireworks display. Earlier in the day, David, Austin, Grace, Isabell and I drove to East Ridge to purchase some fireworks. We squeezed through the multitude of people all there doing the same thing. We got fireworks named The Mamba, Dance Party, Morning Glory, Fire Balls, Sparklers, Snake Dens, and several other odd named fireworks. The kids were so excited carrying around what would soon be purchased from the store. 160.00 dollars later, and we were packing the trunk with our goods.

We ate dinner around 6:30 and then the kids began eagerly asking to “shoot off” the fireworks. They kept looking at the containers of fireworks that were tightly wrapped in plastic hoping to get a glimpse of what was to come. Asking every 10 minutes to begin lighting fireworks became routine, as did our patience as it lessened each time they asked.

Finally…around 9:00, we told the kids we would light some sparklers. They burnt them up in about 2 minutes. We moved to the backyard where Grace had already placed enough chairs in the yard that would accommodate 20 guests. Jeff was in charge of setting the fireworks off, and Austin was ready to help. Isabell was finally coaxed into sitting in a chair close to the display until the first loud boom scared her back into the house where she stayed for the remainder of the night. Melissa was hit in the hand by a piece of shrapnel as one display fell over and shot in her direction. She held up her hand and managed to protect her face. Thank goodness. Her hand is a little bruised today, but her face is fine.

The fireworks display lasted for about 30 minutes, and then everyone was ready to go home. The yard was littered with paper and we cleaned up what we could see. It was a great day to spend time with family.

Mandy reminded me of a random visitor today. She described “random” as the ones that don’t visit often. Jim, a friend of David’s, visited for a while. Other more frequent visitors that were here were: Jeff, Melissa, Austin, Cole, Little David, Maddie, Dakota, and Jo. Christie arrived to pick up Maddie around 5:00 PM.

10 visitors today, 346 in all