4th of July

This year for the 4th of July, we spent the holiday at home. With it being on a Thursday and knowing that I had some very long work days ahead of me, we decided that was the best decision. It wasn't so bad either because there we found plenty to do around our neighborhood and there was definitely no shortage of fireworks!

 

Trent and I on the 4th

On Wednesday night after work, we went across the street to the neighbors to eat and hang out. As soon as it got dark, they put on a fireworks show for us all. They had a lot to shoot off and it was great. Our entire neighborhood is pretty crazy with fireworks, so when there was a break in ours, you could just turn your head in another direction and see fireworks somewhere else! This is one of the reasons why I love living in our neighborhood. All of our neighbors are very nice and friendly and always willing to help each other out. It's also nice to have events like this where everyone can get together and hang out for the night. I love how busy our street is with kids and families always outside. We are the only couple within the 8 or so houses surrounding us (it might be more, but we really don't know the neighbors that far away) that don't have kids, and most of them have between 2 and 4 kids per house, so that's A LOT of kids! It makes it a really fun place to live.

All the neighbors and friends across the street.

On the 4th, we slept in and and then got ready to have a few people over at our house. Two of Trent's co-workers, Ben and Joey, and Joey's husband came over in the afternoon to hang out and have supper before people got crazy with the fireworks again and it was time to watch them.

 

We hung out in the back of the house most of the afternoon and early evening. We all sat around and chatted and ate some good stuff Trent grilled up and played a few games of bags.

Mattie DOES.NOT like the sound of fireworks (or thunder or the vacuum or anything like that) so she stayed close to Trent on the deck for a while. Now, seriously, in our neighborhood for the whole week or so leading up to the 4th, there are people almost constantly setting some sort of explosive off, whether it be an actual firework or just something that makes noise or whatever else people blow up these days for fun... And when it gets dark, it's like constant gunfire outside. It's a miracle that Mattie didn't have some sort of physical symptom like a seizure or a stroke or something because she was under a large amount of stress for about a week straight. Poor dog! I'm glad to say we made it through seizure-free though!

 

 

When it started to get dark, we all went out the front of the house to watch all the fireworks that people were starting to set off. One good thing with the battle-like atmosphere that's going on in our neighborhood around the 4th is that we get to watch a lot of fireworks and not spend any money! There's no doubt that there's A LOT of money going to those fireworks stands from our neighborhood alone!

 

Trent, Ben, Kyle and Joey

We stayed out until things kind of started to die down. Our guests headed home and I headed to bed because I knew I had a few long days of work ahead of me and I was already up later than I should have been. (I ended up working about 30 hours from Friday-Sunday that weekend...)

 

This year, the 4th was great because we were able to relax a bit and be at home but still have fun with some friends and neighbors. I'm looking forward to next year when the 4th falls on a Friday again and creates a long weekend again for those of us who work in Finance and have to work a lot at the beginning of July because of quarter close. ;)

 

As I was getting ready for bed I saw flashes of light outside the window by my bed. I looked through the blinds and saw what I think was probably some of the best fireworks in our area that day. It may have been since they were so close to us, but, nevertheless, they were good!

I hope you all had a good 4th of July holiday and enjoy this video taken from my bedroom window! :)

 

(If you get this in an email click here to see the video on my blog or click here to see it on YouTube)