Annual Fireworks Show

We had another great year with our annual fireworks show last night.  Our crowd was a bit smaller than last year, but we still served up about 270ish root beer floats.  I think this will become my new cap.  That's about an hour of serving and that's probably all that's needed. 

We brought in a port-a-potty which from the rental side was a marvelous experience.  I'm hoping it was equally as nice from the users side, but I haven't heard any feedback from people who needed it.  The rental company included a hand washing station, which we had to refill with water, so people did use it.  Hopefully they found it to be a close second to walking the additional 75 feet to the house.    

The show was spectacular, even with a pretty serious glitch in the firing sequence ... serious more for the ego of the firer not for anyone's safety.  It happens 2:22 into the show. 

So, yeah, the "grand finale" at 2:22 into the show, was not intentional.  GR was using a firing board he wasn't terribly familiar with and hit the ALL button, sending 16 cakes up into the air at the same time.  Really unfortunate cause it's hard to appreciate more than 4 cakes firing at a single time.  But he handled it really well and the show was still fantastic. 

We have lots of family in town this weekend.  We're the hub, and in a few short days we'll all be scattering for family vacations.  GR's mom and sister are spending time north, and the kids and I are heading west, meeting up with my parents and a couple of my siblings for a week in Southern Utah. 

Swimming Lessons

The kids finished swimming lessons today.  We had just the right amount of time free to allow them one, eight class session at the local swim school.  I'm really pleased with how well the kids did with this group.  2-3 kids per instructor, just what my kids need.  I really wanted them to learn more of the mechanics of swimming strokes, not just safely playing in a pool.  Not really knowing what level they were at, I started the three older kids at level three, and Alex at level 1.  

Alex made a lot of progress and is ready for level 2.  He can move around the pool for a little while without his arm floats and it's great to see how excited he is that he can do it all by himself.  Becca and Emily finished at level 5, even passing off a few level 6 skills.  Sam, completed level 5 and is half way done with level 6.  They were invited to try out for their swim team and I have all the paper work to fill out for them to try out/participate.  I had no idea what an investment swim team participation was!  Wow.  I've always wanted them to participate in a swim team, but I'm going to have to think this over more now that I know more about the time and cost commitments.