This is the 6th year that we've lived down here for 4th of July. I honestly can't even remember what we've done on other years--I don't think it was anything huge. Probably just enjoyed the day with Scott being off work, maybe fired up the BBQ in the backyard, etc. We've never actually gone to a big fireworks show, because Jordan was afraid when he was young. Once Jordan was old enough to be interested, Ethan was afraid because he was young!
I do remember packing everyone up in 2009 (Ethan was about 6 weeks old on 4th of July) and starting to walk to the park by our house. It's up in the hills and has a lovely view, and we had been told you could see some nice fireworks from there. As we were walking there, someone set off some fireworks/firecrackers at their house and it scared the crap out of Jordan. Back home we went, without even seeing a single one. (We can hear them from our house, but can't get a great view.) I think last year we might have showed them some fireworks on tv?
This year, we decided we were going to a proper fireworks celebration. In the morning, we went to our city 4th of July parade. We got there just as it was starting and managed to snag a parking space in the lot near the parade's end (happened to be the lot where a yummy bagel place is!) We happily managed to get a great spot to set up our chairs, and we were good to go! We ran into some friends of ours (Alex, Emma, and Anne), and they ended up sitting with us for a while. It was so perfectly what I imagined a 4th of July parade to be. Kids dancing to the music from the floats. People waving and cheering and just supporting their friends and community. There were over 100 floats scheduled to be in the parade. We stayed for about half of them, and that took about 1.5 hours. Seeing as how it was about noon, we decided to grab some lunch at the bagel place.
In line at the bagel place, we ran into one of the Rabbis from our temple! Turns out he lives near us, but we had no idea. We also ran into one of the families from Jordan's baseball team. A quick trip to Ralph's (not our local store, but right next to the bagel place) for some dessert ingredients (Yum! If you like lemon, make this!) and we ran into another one of the families from baseball that we were all fond of!
My friend Amanda had invited us to their street's block party (her son, Justin, is one of Jordan's best friends from school), so we headed over in the late afternoon. They had an inflatable water slide in their driveway that was taller than their house! It provided lots of water fun for the kids, but was crazy fast. E tried it once and that was enough for both of them. Kids were coming FLYING out the bottom--one other kid even bounced out of the little "pool" at the bottom and over the rim into the street (he was fine). I was just as happy that they left it alone. They played with squirt guns and other water blasters, ran around, grazed on food, and enjoyed being with friends. Scott and I didn't know many people, but it was fun to hang out for a while. They had a basketball hoop out, a volleyball net stretched out across the street, etc. We stayed for a few hours, then headed home to get the boys into some pajamas. We decided we wanted to go to a nearby lake to see their fireworks display. We had chairs in the car, but were hoping to get a good spot where we could watch from the car since Ethan was still not so sure he even wanted to see them.
Well, we didn't have to worry about E. He fell asleep in the car on the 15 minute ride to the lake. We circled that parking lot a zillion times, and finally scored a parking spot. We opened the back of the car and piled into the back (E still sleeping in his seat). Of course, a tree was blocking most of our view of the show. Jordan and Scott got out and walked about three cars over and had a perfect view. I traded with Scott for a while so I was able to watch with Jordan, too. He LOVED the fireworks. His whole body gets excited in these situations. I love it. His face, his smile, his excited hands. He was in awe. He kept saying, "It's so beautiful!" E slept through the whole thing. :)
Next year we'll go earlier to a true fireworks show. They will love it!