Burning cinder in my eye

Our Fourth of July celebrating started a day early when we hit up our old neighborhood's block party. We sure miss our friends there and the fun atmosphere that's always present when they all get together! After we spent some time catching up, we headed over to the Owlz game for some baseball and fireworks. We got there at the top of the 8th inning (perfect!), which meant we didn't have to wait long for the fireworks.

Our actual Fourth of July literally started early (for me since I usually sleep in) as we headed back to the old neighborhood to watch the parade. We got some killer seats with our friends the Martins and enjoyed all the firetrucks, police cars, horses, floats, marching bands, bikes, motorcycles, trucks, army vehicles, etc. We did not enjoy the cannon that they fired from an old tank directly in front of us. Four times. D really loved watching the parade and especially loved eating popsicles. I think he requested one about every two minutes (that doesn't mean he got one every two minutes). That little body has never seen so many artificial dyes!!

(D wanted to show his little flag to our big flag when we got home.)

After the parade was over, we caught up with more old friends at the neighborhood watermelon bust and enjoyed some watermelon (obviously) and live (local) entertainment. It was great.

We headed home and all took much-needed naps to get us recharged for the rest of our celebrations. We had a barbecue with Paul's family and some friends at our house before we headed off to the Stadium of Fire. That's right, the Stadium of Fire featuring Miley Cyrus. Paul and I have lived here for over 10 years and neither one of us has ever been to the Stadium of Fire, so when our friend Grant offered us extra tickets (free), we figured we could endure some Hannah Montana just for the experience. Boy were we wrong.

The event actually started out pretty decent. We got there just in time to see the jets fly overhead. As they made it past the stadium some fireworks were set off sending a shower of ash and debris down on us and a piece of I-don't-know-what landed right in my eye, hence the burning cinder in my eye. It wasn't actually burning, but still, my eye is still feeling weird today. After that little mishap, my excitement was rapidly declining. After five minutes on the cramped, uncomfortable bleachers it was declining even more. The opening show was decent. The best part of the whole night I think was when all the families of people serving in the military walked out onto the field with signs and pictures of their loved ones - very touching. Glenn Beck was decent. The Blue Man Group was fun. Miley Cyrus made me want to poke myself in the eye with a fork (I know, what was I expecting?). All the 10-year-old girls (and some of their moms AND some of their grandmas) screaming at the top of their lungs was very disconcerting for little D - he held Paul's hands over his little ears the entire night. Did I mention that it was like a bajillion degrees in the stadium?? As Miley was thankfully ending her encore performance, we decided to get out of there. We figured if we got a nice little cinder shower from the three fireworks they set off at the beginning, our luck would not improve for the "big show". So we walked to the other side of the stadium and watched most of the fireworks. We also watched the entire stadium fill up with smoke and I'm sure the ashes were pouring down (it literally was the stadium of fire). As soon as little D gave us the green light by saying "go home", we took off (even though it wasn't over). It just wasn't fun. Then, we got to spend over an hour in traffic trying to get home. Lovely. We didn't get home until after midnight. Little D actually fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep during the transport from car to bed (which has never happened); he was exhausted (and so were we!). So, the bottom line is that you couldn't pay me money to go back. And I wouldn't pay money to go back unless a really big, big name was headlining (which will never happen). I'll watch the fireworks next year from the comfort of my neighbor's backyard, thank you very much. (This is strictly my opinion, although out of fairness I did go into it with a good attitude expecting the best despite Hannah Montana - sorry Steph - and I just thought the whole thing was incredibly, hugely overrated. Some people probably really dig it and go back year after year, so if you haven't gone, I guess give it a try just to say you've done it. Maybe you'll like it?)


Despite the Stadium of Fire, we actually had a great day filled with fun, friends, and a renewed gratitude for our freedoms and those who sacrifice everything for them.