As today is Independence Day I had the day off work and spent the whole day pretty much with Abi. I guess I should say here that I used the time to capture some great new images for the blog, but I didn’t get to do any of that.
Abi and I spent the early afternoon in the hot tub (it was in the mid 70’s outside) and then we went to the movies together to see Brave. We had a really great time together.
By 4pm I was starting to worry as I didn’t have an image to post tonight, but Lisa pointed out that we were going to a July 4th barbeque and I would get a chance to capture something there.
So at 6 o’clock we walked up the road to Chuck and MaryLou’s house for a neighborhood get-together. We had lots of food and drink and set off some (neighborhood safe) fireworks for the younger kids.
Two things struck me this evening; firstly there is definitely a sweet spot for children who like fireworks, probably below 11 years old. Then they become horribly miserable until they can watch them legally with alcohol when they are older. I say this as the 11’s and under were having a great time, and the adults, who were drinking and lighting fireworks (not a good idea at the same time by the way), were enjoying themselves. But my son and his girlfriend (15 year olds) were totally uninterested and miserable.
I also observed that we say the strangest thing to our kids on holidays like this. What other time in the year would you tell a 9 year old to go out into the middle of the street and wave around a phosphorus coated pyrotechnic that you just set alight and tell them to have fun! Any other time I’d shout at them, asking “what are you doing playing with fire? It’s incredibly dangerous and a stupid thing to do!” We are very odd.
Anyway I did manage to get a nice picture. Abi was playing on the grass with her friend Serra and Jillian, her old baby sitter. They were doing handstands together and laughing on the grass. I jumped at the chance to get a nice shot of the girls.
Carter and Master Chief were feeling very patriotic today and lit their sparklers to celebrate July 4th.
