What I have to look forward to:

Everyone knows GR's favorite holiday is the 4th of July. He teases that he spends more on the fireworks for the 4th than he does on Christmas presents and, I'm sure that's true. I tried to go shopping with him for fireworks years ago, and I've never returned. The sticker shock alone just kills me... $75 for one firework - I don't think so. But I love to watch the display, and GR's displays are getting better and better every year.

This year we were invited back to his home town to watch the Shull family firework show. Bill now has a commercial license, and with all his brothers and brother-in-laws, they spend the entire day blowing things up ... literally. The picture below is of a watermelon blowing up, and then a sampling of all the fireworks they purchased.



Their show lasted 30 minutes and it was as good as any commercial display I've seen. They had three stations set up so any lag time between blasts, was minimal. I was amazed that my kids weren't upset by the loud noises, they love it. Sam was exhausted, so he sat on my lap. You could tell he wanted to just lay his head down on my shoulder, but would keep his eyes off the fireworks. The kids LOVED it.

GR is working to get his commercial license. Someday, he hopes to put on a display like this one... he has to observe 3-4 professional shows... so thankfully it will take some time before we get to this kind of insanity.

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In the hour or so between dinner and the fireworks display, GR and Sharon took the kids outside to light off the kid daytime things... tanks and B-52s. All three of the kids definately have their fathers love of fireworks. Rebecca and Emily would light theirs with help, it took Sam until almost the end to finally go out with GR and light them. It was cute... first he'd hold the tank in the grass and simply hand GR the tank he wanted to light... then later, he'd take it out into the street and hand it to GR... then later, he'd put it on the ground... you get the picture. It was very gradual.