July 5th

We had a wonderful July 4th yesterday.  We stayed at home, the boys played all day long, and last night we drove to town to see the annual fireworks show.  We arrived just in time with just seconds to spare.  I like this picture because it looks like little candy canes in the sky.  The fireworks show lasted at least 20 minutes and was really good.  They had already closed the street off to get to the fireworks so we watched from about a half mile away. 

At church this past weekend, our priest was talking about advice that he was given when he went on a trip as a young man.  The advice was to leave the camera at home and just experience the moment, otherwise you spend the entire trip looking through the camera lens.  I found myself in this situation last night with the fireworks.  I had taken my camera and realized that I was taking pictures and not experiencing the moment.  I put the camera down, sat down with the boys on the tailgate of the truck.  Both boys ended up in the lap or leaning on me.  We “oooh” and “aaaah” throughout the whole show.  We laughed and teased each other.  It was the highlight of my day.  I wouldn’t want to change that experience for all the great pictures in the world.  Afterwards, we got a hot fudge Sunday from McDonald’s and their daddy got hot apple pies.  It was a nice ending to a wonderful day!

I was a little sad and missed my brother yesterday.  He LOVED the holiday and spent a fortune on fireworks every year for his children.  He would have loved the fireworks show last night.  I enjoyed it for him.  Since we are surrounded by lakes, we saw hundreds of boats on the lake waiting for fireworks.  The boys got a kick out of that and were so excited to spy the occasional fireworks in the distance.