Day 4 - July 4, 2011

Our 4th of July didn't go quite as planned, but does anything ever? We originally planned for Kiersten and I to meet earlier in the day, shop for our food for the barbecue, get everything ready and cooked as much as we could, then meet up with everyone later to eat, set off fireworks, then go to one of the cities big fireworks show. As Kiersten and I were cooking, Mike called and said that his car had issues and couldn't drive it. So I had to send her on her way, leaving things half finished on the counter, to rescue Mike. I showed up at about the same time as Todd (Mike's car expert friend that was already on his way with his friend Megan to our barbecue), so I ended up being fairly useless. I probably should have left at that point, but I kind of wanted to watch and see what was going on. It turns out there is something wrong with the crank pulley or something like that. We left the car at a local mechanic's shop for the next day.


The worst part of leaving to help out fell on me. That meant that everyone came back to my house with groceries half put away, food half finished, the floor not swept and mopped, and a late dinner. I just apologized and let it go - a big feat for me.

After our barbecue, where Zoe was getting all dominating,


we went out front to light off the fireworks Todd bought in Wyoming (cause everyone knows that is THE place to buy fireworks). It had started raining at this point, so the back of my car was the home base for launching.

We would launch in the street,


then run back under cover.

One of our favorite parts was launching fireworks over the pond. They were rather pretty reflected on the water, and we got a good laugh seeing the ducks race away from the noise and light.

Since it had been raining so hard, we decided to forgo sitting on the grass in the actual area where they were launching fireworks and watch from a higher vantage point at Mike's work. We were a little late, but we had a perfect view. And we got to see a giant owl. Good times.