4th of July - 2009 Edition

This is a picture of me during my very first time playing with sparklers.

So in my previous blog did I mention how much I love the 4th of July? I didn't think so. I guess I better tell y'all again...just kidding. Instead I'll tell you how much fun I had this year. It was truly a special day, even if I did start out kind of grumpy and thinking I just might have to "go it alone."

My 4th begins at 10:30am when I rolled over and woke up. (Keep in mind my sleep schedule is a bit off kilter and I didn't go to sleep until 2am.) I woke up grumpy. Of course I did. I always wake up grumpy. Always. As my husband says "you wake up grumpy and stay that way until about noon!" Yes sweetie I do. Sorry. Just because it was the 4th didn't mean I wasn't going to be grumpy. Especially when asked about what time we will be getting things rolling for our 4th of July plans when I'm still trying to sleep. Selfish? Why yes I am. Irritable? That too. Sorry again.

My dear sweet husband wakes up ready to go. Always. And he rarely sleeps past 9am. Rarely. He was a super sweet guy on the 4th and made me blueberry pancakes. Thinking back it was really very festive. He made me a special heart shaped blueberry pancake. Even when I woke up grumpy. I love him.

After breakfast I made a batch of brownies. We had plans to go to American Village and meet up with some other wonderful families - the Postons, the Sharps, the Lowerys and I even glimpsed some Davis'. The plan was to eat a picnic supper and no supper is complete without a dessert. So brownies I baked. They were rather large brownies too. You see...what happened was...I started with one mix of double chocolate brownies. I put that one batch into a 9x13 pan. It wasn't even enough to cover the bottom. So I pulled out the reserve bath of plain brownie mix and added it to the pan. I baked it. For at least an hour because of course they were thick brownies. Then when it was time to cut them the trouble came. They were really hard to cut. So I decided to make short work of it and cut big squares instead of small ones. The end result was a brownie big enough to kill...or at least cause great bodily harm to someone who can't eat chocolate.

Fast forward a bit through the getting ready to go stuff and we arrive at American Village just in time-5pm. (I guess I should explain that I carefully planned this arrival time so that we wouldn't be there too long. And by too long I mean long enough that my husband was thoroughly bored and grumpy with too much time before fireworks. I was NOT about to miss fireworks.) So we arrive and walk around a bit. We spot the Sharps carrying their picnic stuff to set up and save a space to watch fireworks. We trek back out to the car and get out picnic stuff. Then we rush off to hear Patrick Henry give a speech. It was definitely a good speech. You may have heard it before....something about "give me liberty or give me death?" Then we went back to munch on some snacks. By this point it is about 6:30-7pmish and we decide to walk around and take some pics so I have something to post on my wonderful blog. We had fun being silly.

Finally we hear the pre-fireworks ceremony begin and we head back to our seats. We pause during the national anthem and we are facing the crowd. A crowd where everyone is standing and many are singing along. It gave me goosebumps I tell you. It is special days like this that remind me how proud Americans really are about our freedom and independence. Then the community band plays a few songs, one of them the 1812 Overture which always reminds me of evening parades at good ol' Marine Barracks Washington. (I really must make plans to see another one next summer.) We made it back to our seats in time to hear a local choir begin a medley of all the services' hymns. When the hymn of each service was sung any crowd members that were a part of that service were asked to stand and be recognized. It began with the army and those in the army just kind of stood there, next up was the navy and again the seamen just stood there any old way, then the coast guard (which the crowd was asking...what service is this? Oh, it must be the coast guard...) and a few stood, then it was the air force and again mere standing any old which way, finally it was time for the United States Marines and all at once *boom* they were up and all standing in the exact same position. I'm sure it has an official name, but I don't know what it is. They were at an attention like stance with their hands clasped in front of them. It made me smile. After that a few more songs were played or sung.

Finally it was time for fireworks!! It was a beautiful display and I truly enjoyed it. I thanked my husband several times for braving the traffic and crowd to take me to see fireworks. The children played with sparklers once the crowd cleared a bit. We made our trek to the car after the majority of the crowd had found their cars. Traffic was still a bit heavy so we waited some more and I was able to play with some of my sparklers. I'm pretty sure people thought I was a little silly playing with them, but I truly love sparklers and fireworks.

Here are some pics of our day:

























We took about 73 pics on the 4th of July 2009. Wow.