July 4, 2018

July 4th fell on a Wednesday this year. Just before lunch we headed out to the ranch but had to stop on the way for some fireworks. We hadn't done our own show since 2014 due to the drought but this year has been wet. Yay! I've been wanting to remake some family photos. 

Shari and Jesse had very recently replaced their old Town and Country and got almost an exact match to our new-to-us van, a 2007 Honda Odyssey. 

First we had lunch altogether and then went outside to feed the chickens and take some family photos. They sure loved the watermelon on the leftover rinds. 

Fluffy feet!

 Noah likes kids best when they're babies so I thought it was cute that he was tickling and playing with Sarah.

Terry was showing Jesse the cutting or raking thing they use in the field. I like that old tractor.

The kids climbed up on the trailer when we were done with the chickens. 

Evie organized some kind of game while I set up the camera for some family shots.

Cousins!

The "Bears" clan.

Shari and Jesse's fam.

Our fam.

Next up was some roller coastering. 

Round two.

Shari got on and everyone changed it up.

Shot from inside the coaster circle.

Some video.

A funny slow motion video!

I wandered off into the tall grass, watchful for rattlesnakes to look at the hills. I like the grass in the foreground and the trees in the field against the hills. 

Meanwhile Gramma and tall Noah just watched. Dude, he has grown a ton this year.

Next up was slip-n-sliding, just like 2014. It was good to be altogether.

Evie.

Grace.

Sarah and Rebekah. 

Just Bekah in the water. 

She was done shortly after.

We had found a large beetle in the grass so we rescued it from the kids' pounding feet and fed it to the chickens. They were a little intimidated by it though. Shari caught one of the girls.

The black and white ones are a little more tame.

So did Evie, and those red ones are harder to grab. She cornered it behind the fence and really freaked it out. 😂

Sarah wanted to pet one so Gramma got one for her.

Shari and Noah disappeared on the side of the garage and when I went to find them, chickens were running in every direction. They had slowly crept up on them, cornered them against the wall, and made their grab for a couple. It was funny, hence their smiles.

Fluffy feet again! They're my favorite.

After a while we went inside to eat, Shari and Jesse left, and we went back out again to ride some bikes.  

Ezra needed some more practice. I think Terry looks cool in his Coke shirt, like it's a commercial. 

Grampa brought the side-by-side up so we could drive to the creek.

Terry walked while Ezra rode down there and Girlie insisted on riding with me and the kids. She loves going for rides. 

We threw all the rocks that Grampa had collected into the creek and then took a couple pictures. It was just so beautiful out!  

It was actually a little chilly that day, and especially as the sun as going down. What a weird summer we're having.

Just before sundown it was time to start setting off the fireworks we had bought. 

Terry started out with snakes and showed the kids how to light them. 

I wandered off to try to get some nice sunset pictures.

I turned around to come back just as they started the littles' favorite, the parachute guys. 

There goes the second one. 

It landed in a tree. 

Zooming out to the southwest. I like that little bluff with the light on it.

I love this tree. I always photograph it. I always say that. 😝

Such pretty light.

Getting set up for the bottle rockets before we decided to move them further away. 

When I returned the kids were starting on bottle rockets. 

We had all three going at once.

Next they shot off the tanks. I love Samuel's excited response.

Noah's so uncharacteristically chill. 

Finally we began to set off the Roman candles. 

Samuel burned my leg with one of his punks. 

Sparkler time. I like Evie's little face behind that smoke and flame.

Sparklers for the boys.

Sparkler footage.

Time for the finale, that big one Terry was showing when he bought them. Really they were just like a bunch of Roman candles all at once. Meh. 

Kind of fun though! 

Afterward we booked it out of there to try to catch a fireworks show. We managed to watch the Piedmont show and it was really nice not to fight traffic like we did last year.