The rain came down Sunday night and early Monday morning…and then it stopped. The clouds parted, the sun shone down, and God smiled down upon us and our night of orchestrated explosions. After weeks of high temps in the upper 90’s we had a day that stayed in the upper 70’s/lower 80’s and an evening that worked its way down into the 60’s.
It was an absolutely perfect 4th of July thanks in large part to James and Julie. James’ business purchased a truck load of fireworks and Julie planned an evening of great food, with additional items brought by all the ladies who attended, and we ate and blew stuff up!!!
(James and Lydia guarding the loot)
We started lighting rockets and Roman candles at around 6:30 p.m. and finished lighting stuff around 10:30 p.m. 4 hours of non-stop fireworks with multiple people lighting at the same time. While Jeff and Keri, et. al helped the small children light parachutes and sparklers James, Mike, Jason and I had the older kids lighting rockets and roman candles and all manner of daytime fireworks.
(James, me, brother-in-law Mike, and my brother Jason saying ‘Happy Birthday America!”)
As night fell we sent the kids across the street and began shooting off display rockets, mines, reloadables, and display tubes. At one point we had 4 adult males and 2 teenage girls lighting things at the same time. The last few hours consisted of James, Mike, Jason and I lining up mines, tubes, and reloadables on 2 separate tables and lighting multiple things simultaneously so that we had huge, multi-shot displays going. It was unlike anything I have ever seen and was by far the best fireworks display that I have ever had a part in. We received regular cheers from our “audience” across the street which just encouraged us to be more and more creative with our displays.
(Jason and I create magic)
Individual highlights included the 500+ shot saturn missle (the flag pictured above) and the 225 shot mine we saved for the finale. The best of the best though was when we all had multiple items going off at the same time.
This was by far my most favorite 4th of July, it was everything we had hoped it would be and more. We were able to introduce new friends to old friends, eat great food, introduce the older children to the joys of lighting off big fireworks, and blow tons of stuff up. Thank you so much James, Julie and Integrity Countertops.
(I copied this from the previous fireworks post and placed it here as well. -Carl)
thought you’d be pleased to know that there was no shortage whatsoever of neighborhood street fireworks round here. it was nonstop; apparently this has been the best year for it since the 80’s–what happened to the rules? who knows? but my cat must have thought she was suddenly in a war zone–had to say with all those M80s going off in nearby streets & backyards, & all the flashes & colors reflected off houses, i felt a bit like that too…not that i’ve ever been in a war zone or anything.
ah, the americans’ time-honored tradition of Blowing Things Up. we’re all patriots with a fuse in our hand…
Sounds like you had a fun night as well, Jenn See. The 2 dogs attending our festivities…Motley and Zoe…were a bit freaked out too. Between the loudness and the fact that we all had soot and debris raining down on us because of our proximity to the show the dogs were most likely wishing they would wake up from the nightmare that was Independence Day. They are probably sleeping well today.
Julie posted some more pics and impressions at her site here.
I was looking forward to reading your post!
I was just going to ask for pictures…! I’ll be off to Julie’s then.
Actually, I was thinking of pictures of the pyrotechnics… You can’t not post any, you know that…
I was going to try to set up a tripod and leave the shutter open a few seconds but was busy managing a one year old instead! The pictures of fireworks just don’t seem to turn out good for me with normal shutter speeds. They don’t do the fireworks justice.
Yep, you’ll have to blame Julie for the lack of pyrotechnics pix…I was too busy blowin’ things up to take pix! Between the oooing and ahhhing and trying to keep the kids out of the street there was just too much going on to take pics once the sky got dark.
Don’t you love the top picture of me?
My left hand looks deformed! lol
LOL! It really does now that you mention it….your hand looks like the “after” picture from lighting several hours worth of fireworks!
To James, Julie, Carl, & Mary – Thanks again for inviting us over to your 4th of July Celebration. Keri, the kids and I had a great time and everyone made us feel very welcome. The food was super and my kids loved meeting new friends. It was all they could talk about all week.
I wasn’t kidding when I said that was the best show I had ever seen and the funnest 4th of July I’ve ever had. I was even able to get over some of my neverousness and light off some of the small stuff. I had never seriously ever lit anything off bigger than sparklers, snakes, or snaps, not even bottle rockets. It was a lot of fun and I had a blast. 🙂 Thanks!
I think the highlight for the girls was playing with your kiddos. We’ll have to all get together again!
Are you sure you don’t want a cat…..or two?
LOL. I should have checked my daughters pockets when we left to see if she hadn’t tried to smuggle one of those cats home. 🙂
I know the highlight for our kids was playing with yours also. We will have to do it again.
You’re not fooling me, James. I know you wouldn’t give up your kitties. Softy!
I can’t get any work done. These two cats don’t sleep at the same time. One is always wanting to play.
My back is already covered with scratches from the cats using me to get on the desk.
Ouch!
Quit your whining and be a real man! You have 4 young girls at home, you should be used to having your back walked on!