"God Bless the USA"

I think the 4th of July is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. I've always enjoyed the day but in recent years I have found it is one I really enjoy.  This past 4th was my favorite one so far.

I love the Arlington Parade. There, I said it. I really do. This year I think was one of the best years for the parade. This could be because I was absent from the parade last year but it truly was a really good parade. I was surprised when I looked up to see the final 'float' coming through. I thought "it can't be over yet!". In past years, I will admit, the parade has tended to go on for a long time. Sometimes the amount of fire trucks, ambulances, and tractors does take its toll. Luckily, the logging trucks are no longer involved.

I love sitting on the curb of the street, people watching, nudging my sisters to ask "did we go to school with that person?" or "did you see that??".  The number of familiar high school faces is dwindling but there is always plenty of people watching to keep us entertained.  This year my sisters and I sat there with our husbands and our kids.  We added two more cousins since the

 last time we all sat together and now we have 5 cousins there to enjoy the parade.  

After the parade the fun, for some of us, begins.  My husband and brother-in-law go to the fireworks stand alone, with some cash. Lucky for them, they realized the fireworks stand takes debit cards! No limit!  They bring home bags of fireworks from smoke bombs to crazy flying ladybugs. They have it all.  Watching them light the fireworks takes courage. You want to be close enough to see the show but far enough away to not be hit by any flying objects. It is not good enough to just light the fireworks they must see how many they can light at one time and also what happens when you put them in things like: glass bottles, tin cans, pans, even stumps. 

By the time we are heading home, watching all the fireworks blasting off along I-5, both boys asleep in the back, we are exhausted. But we are already talking about next year, what we want to do, how much more fun our boys will have, and what fireworks we should buy.