Fourth of July

We had a lovely time this year over the long weekend for Fourth of July. On the 3rd we went up as a family to Steele Hill, to their fireworks. Phil and Glady went first, as he was twisting, and he started about 5:30 pm, then the rest of us joined them and I started twisting about 6:30 pm with him, while Dad kept an eye on the kids. There was a playground that they had a blast on, and the crowds were pretty light until about 8 pm. The Phil and I started to have a line, even with two of us. I hadn’t expected there to be so many people there.

After nine, when it got too dark to see what color balloons we were pulling out of our bags, and the fireworks were about to start, we shooed off the last few people who still wanted a balloon, even though it was now too dark to see them, and went to be with the kids. Johann had been hanging out in the baby backpack and I picked him up when the ‘booms’ started, but he didn’t fuss. He flinched a few times, but mostly he wanted to look up at the colors and play with my face.

I have never seen a neater fireworks display than this one was. We were so close to them that sometimes it looked like we were inside the bursts. A couple of times embers rained down around the crowd, but they were little and the grass was damp, so no harm. It was a very intimate display, and quite breathtaking. The girls loved it, of course, and joined Phil in cheering and applauding the finale very enthusiastically.

After that we waited a few minutes for the crowd to thin out and half of us headed home. Glady, Johann and I waited for the second trip, sitting on the porch wrapped in a blanket. I taught Glady how to play twenty questions and we had fun. She got to be at a quarter after eleven, and was very pleased with getting to stay up so late.

Yesterday Dad and the girls went up to Toad Hall for the Annual Independence Day Party. It sounds like they had a good time. Phil needed to keep his legs up and catch up after three busy days in a row, and I was needing to rest, too. We were quiet and didn’t do a lot. The girls came home and then fell into bed not too long after - and Glady slept until 8 this morning, which is unheard of.

Phil is off to two Summer Reading shows today - up by Conway. I am trying to get office stuff done and the girls to nap. And laundry, and what-not... But it was a very nice holiday weekend.