Happy 4th of July! - Annotated

We had a fabulous fourth weekend! It was so nice to have Ian home the whole time. He even was able to come home early on the 3rd, so it was an extra long weekend with him, yay! We spent the morning/afternoon of the 4th getting stuff done around the house and relaxing. That evening we headed to some friends' house for a bbq and to do some little fireworks. Weston was so excited to do his own fireworks (aka: sparklers and poppers).

The sparklers made him nervous at first, but when he figured out where to hold it and that it would stop burning before it got his hand he thought they were awesome. He also liked the sizzle noise when he put the burnt stick in the water. We will have to do sparklers again on the 24th when it is dark outside and get some better pics of them.

After the bbq we headed off to stake out a spot to watch fireworks at Murray Park, our old stomping grounds. We LOVE watching fireworks there. It is easy to park, we found an awesome new spot this year, it is easy to get out afterwards and it's a beautiful park with plenty to do right by the river/lake with the ducks. With 2 kids and 3 hours to kill before the fireworks show, it entailed bringing a lot of stuff. Here is our little entourage.
Right by our spot was this little bar for doing exercises along the trail. Weston is very into hanging on things right now and is always asking if he can hang on the doorknobs in the house ("I hang on this?"). NO! Anyway, this bar kept him occupied for a good half hour.
Hanging with the boys pre-show. It was actually really nice out with lots of cloud cover and a good breeze; so much more pleasant than the 102 degree forecast made me think it would be.
Look at all those smiles. Daddy helped out a ton keeping the kids entertained and happy.
At little before 9 the Matagi's showed up with their 2 kids. It was fun to hang out and visit for a bit. Also, Weston and Makenzie were so adorable together. They can finally understand each other. They held hands all the way over to the playground and chatted. It was so stinkin cute. Plus Kenzie shared her glowstick necklace with Weston so he was set.
Watching the show. Davin finally fell asleep about 5 minutes into the show and was out for the night. Weston stayed awake the whole time and all the way home, so it was a long day for him.
The conversation right when the finale ended:
S: The fireworks are all done.
W: Why?
S: Because the show is all over.
W: I watch it again?
S: (laughing) um, no.
Apparently he thought I could just push the magic button and make it start again. :)
After we got home Ian was messing around with the camera and Weston's glow stick. He calls it light graffiti. This one's my favorite.So we had a great time and the fun didn't end there. Today we spent the morning at the pool playing in the water. We will go back after dinner. I got Weston an innertube and goggles, so I'm hoping that will mean he likes the pool a little better and will be less cling-to-me-like-his-life-depended-on-it-ish.

We are also excited that Natalie and Joy had their babies this weekend. My new niece, Rachel Liberte, made her 11 lb. 1 oz. debut on Independence Day. She is doing great despite being in the NICU due to low blood sugar.

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So, I call it light graffiti because, that's what it is called. If you think that shot is remotely interesting, do a google search for Light Graffiti. You can do a ton of cool stuff with a couple flashlights and the right settings on your digital camera. I particularly liked this page I found here but there are tons out there. Over the past few months, Sprint has been using light graffiti in some of their ads, and you may have thought, oh thats kind of a cool effect done with computers, but its really kind of analog... you could even do it with a film camera, its just easier with digital because of the immediate results.