Happy Birthday America!

We broke out of our 4th of July mold this year and started all new things to go with our new hometown. The festivities started last night with the city's big fireworks show. Around these parts the big show is on July 3rd and we can see it from our back deck. This is a much better arrangement for our "freak out when they hear loud fireworks" children. I can't count how many times Jenna mentioned how much she loved not really be able to hear the fireworks too well. "The sound just freaks me out, Mom." Yeah, I know. We learned that all too well last year at our fireworks fiasco. Korinne fell asleep before the show started so it was nice to just put her to bed instead of dragging her all over town.

This morning started early, at 6 a.m. to be exact. We had to drag our kids out of bed at that unearthly hour so Adam could drive me to the starting line of the local 15 K (9.3 mi) race. I've never run a race on the 4th of July before, but a 15 K sounded like my kind of race. I have taken a vow to never run a 5 K because I know I"ll never be able to touch my high school times and frankly I find that depressing. For me the longer the distance, the better. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll run it again next year.

To be honest I had my doubts about the local 4th of July parade. It all started when I found out that it didn't start until noon. Noon?!? On the 4th of July? Can you be outside at that hour and not melt? As we were leaving I warned my kids, "I'm not sure if this is a parade where they give out candy so be prepared for that possibility." I grabbed a few sandwich bags just in case there was some candy but I wasn't very hopeful. After all, we weren't in Murray anymore. We got to our spot in the parade about 10 seconds before the start--perfect timing. I had an idea that I might have been wrong about the possibility of candy when I saw all of the kids around us with huge plastic grocery sacks. Not only did they throw out candy, but every single car, float, organization and entry (minus the marching band) threw out something. Even the beauty queens were throwing out candy! And it didn't stop with the candy. They threw out ice cream sandwiches, lots of frozen otter pops, ice cold bottles of water, frisbees, and other things. They even threw out cold things of string cheese! That is right, STRING CHEESE. (It is CV after all.) They weren't stingy with everything either. Our kids filled up their sandwich bags about 5 times and everyone who wanted the cold water or otter pops got one.


Here is a quick picture of the unloading zone during the parade. I was so amused by the string cheese, otter pops, water bottles and Halloween type candy that I couldn't resist taking a quick picture. The kids were still on the front lines getting more stuff. Needless to say we were all converted to the new parade. It was awesome.


Korinne was content to stay back and sit next to Adam and me. I tried to get her to pose for a picture, but she wouldn't. Don't worry, I checked her forehead and she wasn't warm. When she refuses to pose for pictures I always have to make sure she is feeling alright.

The weather actually cooperated, too. It was overcast for the entire parade. The sun didn't come out until about 30 seconds after the parade was over. I'm not sure what we will do next year, but this year it the temperature was just perfect. Here is Adam drinking some nice cold water.

After the parade we came home and had lunch and then took the kids to see, "Night at the Museum 2" which they enjoyed. Then it was back home for our own little BBQ. Korinne was being silly at dinner and Adam teasingly remarked, "Korinne, you're a nut." To which she genuinely smiled and offered a sincere, "Thanks, Dad!" Only Korinne would find that to be a compliment at only 3 years of age. What a character.

Last night before the fireworks started we started hearing loud popping noises in our garage. We had a case of Fresca in our fridge out there which we soon discovered had been frozen solid. (The fridge has been known to do such things) What happens to cans of soda pop when they freeze? They explode, of course. We had about 8 or 9 explode, most only moments after we pulled them from their frozen death chamber. The few that managed to keep it together looked like this:

There is nothing I hate worse that having an entire case of Fresca ruined! Double grrr to you, old fridge!