Punks and bottle rockets

One of my earliest memories are of the 4th of July.  I was 3 years old, and we lived in Rochester, Minnesota.  I'm sure that being allowed to stay up until dark was a treat in itself, but it only got better.  I remember sitting on a blanket on the corner of our block, next to a fire hydrant, and watching the sky explode with color.  Since then, it's been one of my favorite holidays.

Which is why I pushed for Loren and I to get married on this date.  It also makes for a never-gets-old joke that "we will always see fireworks on our anniversary" :-) 

This year, however, the weather really controlled the day's events.  With the heat index over 100 and livestock warnings out due to the heat and humidity, that pretty much kept us inside most of the afternoon. 

That gave us a chance to watch our videos from China, along with some from the girls performances at the County Horse Show, so that was good use of our indoor time. :-)

We did manage to grill hotdogs and hamburgers, and had Grandma Lee and Tanner over for dinner and conversation.   

Finally, by 10:00 it was cool enough and dark enough to do a little firework-shooting.

Because of the dry conditions, we had buckets of water, and I ran around like a crazy woman pouring water on any sparks that I saw.

Not at all the celebration that we had in mind, but we are all grateful to be together and able to enjoy all of the freedoms that our country has to offer.  

And we woke up to the beautiful sound of rain!  Who knew that seeing puddles in your yard would evoke such feelings of happiness?! 

Happy 4th of July and Happy Anniversary Honey!!  And yes, I'm still seeing fireworks ;-)