Happy Third of July

We celebrated Independence Day on the 3rd instead of the 4th. We went to the marine base firework show Thursday, met up with Heather and Trevor and their kids, and had a blast. The kids played on giant inflatables, a rock wall, and a bungee trampoline. When keeping up with eight children got to be enough, we put them all on a blanket and played with Isaac's toys while he crawled around in a diaper. I'd brought a football and the boys enjoyed playing until the crowd thickened enough that people were getting hit in the head by wild throws. I love watching kids play football. It's like a magnet. Other kids see and join in. You start out with two boys tossing the ball and after a few minutes you've got a pile of kids playing a real game. Joshua passed to a young boy several times to make sure he wasn't left out. Finally it got dark and the fireworks began. They were awesome, close, and LOUD. We all oohed and aahed. Isaac stared at them the whole time. Noah had an attitude and said he did not want to watch the fireworks. He said he wanted to go sit in the port-a-potty so he couldn't see them, and cover his ears so he couldn't hear them, but when the show began he changed his tune and really had fun :) When it was over we said goodbye to Heather, spoke with friends we hadn't seen in a long time, and headed toward the front gate. This took a long time because 4,000 people had to be corralled like cattle in between barricades. We bottlenecked to get through fence gates one at a time. We walked awhile from there, since we had to park in Egypt, and when we finally made it to the car we discovered the cars that had made it out of the base were at a stand-still on the road. So, we decided to wait til traffic thinned out. We tailgated in the parking lot. I pulled out the snacks we had in the cooler, and the kids played football and frisbee, this time trying to avoid hitting the other cars who had the same idea to sit awhile. I fed Isaac in the beach chair and watched my husband and sons run and play. The queen on her throne with the new prince, being entertained by the king and the heirs. We had a blast. Friends, family, fireworks, food. Fun fun fun. The best July 3rd we've ever had.