4th of July Fun

My sister, who lives in Missouri, came out for the 4th of July. Since this is a rare occurrence we had to pack every second with fun. First up, a kids parade. We had the sweetest ride in town. This is the Cadillac of little red wagons complete with bucket seats, seat belts (so wiggly babies can't jump out), and an added umbrella for shade (courtesy of Emma my niece - how thoughtful). We then pimped our ride with streamers, sparklers, and a giant poster so there would be no mistaking who we were. The kids were stoked.

There was of course the Legion Hall breakfast, the renowned parade, and regular park festivities which are all Beckstrand 4th of July traditions and are not to be missed. Unfortunately, I was having far to much fun to waste time taking pictures. Sorry. Use your imaginations. I am sure what you will come up with will be sufficient.

Then of course there are fireworks, which is where Fillmore spends 98% of the annual budget. We have a firework show that rivals Times Square and is enjoyed by about 1,500 people. Our pre-firework show had an even smaller audience, but was enjoyed just as much.

On to the main event. We had staked our claim with multiple blankets, consumed our donuts, and settled in for the show. Everything was going swimmingly when we began to feel that the illusion of each fireworks flaming remnants falling down on top of our heads was no longer an illusion. We were under fire. We dodged canisters and miscellaneous bits of smoldering ash as we took shelter under the safety of our blankets, and with eyes peering out continued to watch the show. What goes great with fire? Why rain of course, which is what began to fall from the sky next. (I didn't know James Taylor had been to one of Fillmore's firework spectaculars. Make that 1,501 people) Luckily we were already under our blankets so no harm done. However, after all this it was the finale that was the real kicker. There was a problem with the last firework of the night. The problem being that it exploded on the ground rather than in the sky, shooting a terrifying but quite brilliant ring of fire out in all directions. The closest of which landed about 15 feet from our battle torn blanket. Thankfully, we didn't hear of anyone being hurt from the debacle, and all we can say is we look forward to next year!

During the rest of the week, we also managed to fit in a trip to Cherry Hill, where Alex promptly fell asleep upon arrival and remained that way for and hour and half, (thank goodness for mom's who like to sit and watch over sleeping babies) a trip to see my cousin Brianne's darling new baby, where I realized that mine no longer could be classified in that category, and the Ute Stampede.

I know, we sure know how to have a good time.

(I put this one in because my brother is so cute - he was very proud of himself for beating Emma in tetherball)