July 4th

What a relaxing, fun-filled 4th of July.

We were really bummed we weren't at the beach but we made the most of Small Town, USA.

Early in the day, Ryan had to help cut down a tree.

Oh, don't worry.  Anything that involves his tanker, a tractor and power tools is not considered work in Ryan's eyes.

He also took Zoey with him

She was so happy.

This is the best picture I could get of the two of them.

While Ryan and Zoey played with tractors and power tools, I took the girls to the pool.

Bug hardly wants to get off of the steps and Big wants to stay at the deep end.

Talk about being pulled in 1000 directions.

After the pool, me and Sister rode to the grocery store.

We cooked out at Mom & Dad's.

While the chicken wings were grilling, the girls rode their new bikes.

Buster sniffed around and tried to stay out of the way.

Big declared she ran into Anna 3 times... on accident.

We listened to a little music while the girls and Buster played with barbies...

We ate dinner.

Chicken wings, hot dogs, oven skillet potatoes, french fries, okra, a drunk salad.

I forgot to take a picture of everything.  However, I took a picture of Mom's supper.

A pimento cheese on sunflower artisan bread.

She doesn't eat meat, remember.

Cookouts aren't her favorite.

After dinner, we broke out the flammables.

We bought them at the local grocery store.

We are from Small Town, USA remember.

As we stood in line, I realized we had alcohol AND fireworks in the cart.

We panicked for just a minute wondering if we could buy them both at the same time.

Then we remembered, we are from Small Town, USA.

We're pretty sure buying TNT and alcohol at the same time is the norm.

We did sparklers and little fountains first.

We watched the sun set...

While these three crazies sang Adele...

Finally it was time.

It was dark enough for the light show to begin.

In NC, firecrackers, ground spinners, bottle rockets, roman candles, and aerial fireworks are illegal.

According to this, a simple rule of thumb; anything that explodes or is projected into the air is illegal.

Therefore, unless one drives to the border to buy illegal fireworks you are stuck with little fountains.

But the girls loved them.

Emma was in the middle of all the action with Dad.

She would run to us and want us to get closer.

She stood as close as my Dad would let her.

She loved it!

We had a fabulous time with the family.

Happy 4th to everyone.

I hope it was as awesome as ours.