A Family Tradition

Ever since I can remember my parents have always had a big celebration for the Fourth of July. There is just something about celebrating freedom isn't there? As kids, we always loved having friends (the children of my parents best friends) over to play with, eating homemade ice cream, swimming, and watching fireworks. It is such a blessing to me to be able to continue keeping that same tradition in the same place (my parents house) that I grew up in, and to see my children making the very same memories that I am so fond of.

By my estimation, it has only gotten better. The food seems to multiply each year. And we've fallen head over heels in love with the "piece de resistance" of every fourth of July meal: the homemade yoohoo icecream (thanks for the recipe Randall-even though I never can remember it). My word in heaven y'all, that ice cream will make your lips draw right up and smack your eyeballs! It is sooo, and I do mean sooo, good!

The food is great, but my favorite part is always the fireworks. Now, don't get me wrong, it's certainly not "Pops in the Park" or anything, but there is just something about sitting on the hill at the top of Mom & Dad's driveway and watching your own fireworks display. The fireworks have certainly improved over the years as well. When I was a kid it was just sparklers, bottle rockets, and firecrackers (and Scott got most of those to blow up frogs or half kill somebody). Nowadays, the kids still get the sparklers, and the big kids (Brad/Scott) still get the bottle rockets, but we've added some of the fancy stuff too. We're certainly amateurs, but for amateurs, I'd say we hold our own. This is the only time I really justify letting hard earned money go up in smoke (literally). To me, it's worth it.

My whole family is always there. But we always share the evening with friends too. Our close friends, Eric & Tammy and their girls along with Tammy's parents and sister always come. And this year, Scott's college roommate, Bruce and his family got to come up from Florida. Again, this kind of just continues the tradition that mom & dad started. It just wouldn't be the same without friends.

So, in case you didn't pick up on everything. Let me just say it this way:

Family + Friends + Food + Fireworks + Freedom = A FULL HEART and a lot of FUN!

As always, enjoy the pictures.
Here are all the kids
.

and here is what they are watching.

This was, by no means, the finale; but as you can imagine taking a picture of fireworks with a digital camera that has a slight delay is a little tricky, so I switched to video. I especially like this one because you can hear laughing in the background. The laughing you hear is my sister. She was behind her digital camera and daddy was trying to time the fireworks to her "pushing the button". Apparently, from the laughing and her blog posts, it worked. So, at the end, I was saying I wanted to try it next. I ended up just giving him the camera. All he got was pictures of a black night.