Fourth of July 2010

This is how my Fourth of July started... with a smiley three-toothed six month old ready to play.  It was a great way to start my day.  After we got Ephram dressed, and did a little photo shoot (see last post) Ephram and I headed downstairs to make a good patriotic breakfast... Blueberry muffins and strawberries.  Red, white and blue.  Then we went upstairs to wake up the other two boys in the house, who were both in great moods as well.

Our day passed relatively quick.  It was one of the cloudiest and coldest Fourth of July's that we have had in the twelve years we've lived in Washington state.  I think the only Fourth of July that was more dreary was our first one here... which we spent in the rain at Gasworks Park.  We stayed inside doing our own things, including baking snickerdoodles, until evening arrived.  When it was finally time for Andy to make dinner, Charlie and Boone went outside to help him and Ephram stayed inside with me while I prepped the cold foods.

Then I put Ephram in our front carrier, and we headed outside to join neighbors in our cul-de-sac.  This is the first year that I was not paranoid about our house burning down, for two reasons.  First, we have our new non-shake roof.  Second, it was cold and looked as if it could rain.  I was much more relaxed then normal and had fun watching Charlie run around with excitement... waiting for the sun to start setting so that we could have the real fireworks.

Of course, once this finally happened Ephram was out cold... and it was way past his bedtime.  I headed inside with him so that he could be warm and cozy while he slept.  Andy stayed outside with Charlie as the real festivities were about to begin.

Did I mind being inside during our cul-de-sac's show?  Nope.  This time last year I was stressed out and pregnant.  This year I was amazingly relaxed and admiring my peaceful six month old, who only stirred once during the hours of fireworks that ensued.  I also discovered that the show from inside my house is even better than outside.  I had a view of at least ten little firework shows from the windows of the house.  It was amazing.  The pictures below don't do it justice, but they may give you an idea of how bright it was in there.  The first two are out of my bedroom window, and the last one is out of Ephram's nursery window.

Eventually Charlie fell asleep outside, and Andy brought him in and to bed.  He was thoroughly entranced with the fireworks and still talks about it, and the sparklers he got to hold.  Andy headed back out to converse with a couple of the neighbors and see if he could help clean up a little bit.

When he came in an hour or so later, he told me that they had saved a house from catching fire.  Apparently, one of our neighbors roofs had a small blaze going that Andy saw from the street.  He went to go ring the doorbell in case anyone was inside, and another one of our neighbors climbed up on the roof to put the fire out.  It turns out that our neighbor was not home, so who knows how large the flame could have become before it was discovered.  This all made me that much more glad that my shake roof is gone!

I loved this Fourth of July and can't wait to pass more holidays with my family!