4th of July

I love the 4th of July and this year was no exception (though we didn't even try to top last year's festivities of the family reunion up in Heber with endless soft serve ice cream cones and seeing Brooks and Dunn in concert at Stadium of Fire) . Can it get any better than spending time with family and friends, eating great food, and watching fireworks?! The only downside to the holiday was that we were missing Dan's family and the annual Packer family reunion : ( The day started early with a pancake breakfast/flag raising ceremony/children's parade at our church. Dan and my parents met the kids and I there since they were driving up from Houston that morning. The kids had a blast and loved riding around on their scooters while all the adults cheered. We spent the rest of the day buying fireworks, watching movies, and preparing our dinner of potato salad, baked beans, and hamburgers and hot dogs! At nine o'clock it was finally getting dark enough to start our own firework display and that is where the real excitement began. Cicialy was scared to death of the fireworks screaming and refusing to even watch them, Will got to be grandpa's firework lighting buddy which almost gave me a heartattack every time, and we had to put out a fairly large grass fire, but the fireworks were spectacular and a lot of fun. We loved having Grandma Freeman, Papagator, and Daddy up here in Tyler for the weekend. Next year we will spend the 4th in either Utah or Houston - we can't wait!