Meet Me In St. Louis: 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! (over a week late) :)

Our 4th was filled with good times with new neighbors and lots and lots of fireworks.

The St. Johns invited us to dinner at their house. We had a really nice meal, got to meet their grandmother, and got to spend more time getting to know them better. I got to meet Lindsay, and since then we've hung out a few times. She's really sweet and nice to talk to, and we have a lot of the same interests. :) I'm glad I finally got to meet her and that I met someone around my age here.

After dinner, we were planning on heading over to a grocery store parking lot to watch the fireworks at Bluebird Park. When we got there though, the parking lot was completely full, so we headed back to an open field that we had passed along the way to park and watch the fireworks.

Sunset in the field

A toad I caught before the fireworks-
they're everywhere up here!

The field where we camped out

Fireworks in the field before the big show

We set up our lawn chairs, covered ourselves in bug spray, enjoyed some angel food cake for dessert, and the boys played a little football before the show started. It was a lot of fun to spend time with the St. Johns. They've become more than just acquaintances and friendly neighbors that you occasionally say hi to for us, and it's really nice to have a family that we're already spending a lot of time with and sharing everyday life with. :)

Candid shot of half the gang

and the other half :)

After the fireworks show, we headed back to our house to set off all the fireworks that dad had gotten the day before on his way home from work. Ben and Scott, the junior pyrotechnics, had a blast setting off all the rockets, smoke bombs, and roman candles. So did Dad, who is also a little bit of a pyrotechnic when it comes to fun things like fireworks. :) Mom, Mrs. St. John, Lindsay, and I stood back, watched the boys have their fun, and enjoyed all the fireworks. The house across the street from us, the Jankersons, were outside shooting off their own fireworks, so we got into a good-natured, friendly "fireworks war" with them- each group would try to top the other's last firework. :)

Ben setting up the rockets

Some of the rockets we set off

Roman candle

Scott's cast matched the green smoke bomb :)
(it looks yellow because of the camera's flash-
I'm not colorblind, I promise) :)

Flower spin-things

Mom and Mrs. St. John

Scott drumming with the burnt rocket sticks

The big finale to our fireworks show was a huge firework box that dad had seen in the store and wanted to try out. "Thunder Guns" was a box with 9 individual rockets that, when lit, all went off at the same time. I think it was big enough that it satisfied all the fire fanatics in the group. :)