4th of July!

Our July 4th was different than most in the past. We usually go to the Provo Parade in the morning and hang out with family in the afternoon and evening. But since we are no longer in Utah we made different plans. Mike spent most of the day constructing the kids new playset. We went to our next-door neighbors for a bbq and set off fireworks in the street. We have been really lucky to live between two really great young families. All of our kids play together and we seem to get along...for now. ;)Fireworks in Washington are crazy. I am used to living in a dry state where there are major bans on most fireworks. It seems like you could do just about anything. The neighborhood right across the trail from our house put on quite the show. It went on for a least 50 minutes straight with fireworks like these. I think a lot of these came from the Indian reservation. It was impressive.
Megan kept standing in the smoke and I would catch her plugging her nose. It took her a while to figure out how to move up-wind.
Roman candles were scary for me and I actually let my 6-year-olds hold them by themselves. What was I thinking? You could take a face out with one of those things. Here is a pretty good shot of Sarah with her Roman Candle. I actually got the shot in the frame. She was also trying to cover her ears while it was going off. Cracked me up when I saw it.
And yes, we didn't escape the rain entirely. Welcome to a Washington July 4th. Halfway into our fireworks it started to sprinkle a bit. Enough to get the ground wet and then it stopped. Thomas continued to use his umbrella for at least another 1/2 hour and I think he felt more secure with it when all the fireworks were going off. Kind of like a shield. We all had to wear sweatshirts, which is probably the first year for me ever being cold on July 4th, but at least it only rained a little bit. It literally dumped for hours the very next day. So much rain fell on July 5th, it was crazy!Thomas was absolutely terrified when we took him out to the street and the fireworks were going off. He would not let me put him down for at least 45 minutes. He also didn't want to stay in the house by himself. Somehow we peeled him off of me and after another 30 minutes had gone by, Mike was able to convince him to hold a sparkler.

And before you knew it something had changed. Either he started to like the sparklers or staying up until 11:00 pm weakened his senses. Suddenly he was holding 2 sparklers with no problem. Then we had to start watching him with all his wild waving around. Someone's eye will get poked out. This is Thomas, Megan, Kayla(neighbor), and Sarah showing me their designs.
We had a really nice day. It was nice to not have any pressure to be anywhere for most of the day, and we had fun getting to know some of our new neighbors. I did miss hanging out with family. Our Ward family were no-shows this year, but maybe next year we can do something together. Happy 4th of July America! We had fun!