July 4th

July 4th dawned and I didn't have a plan. No plans for company, no plans for great food, no plans for crafts or anything. If I hadn't been so tired, I probably would have cared a little more. I did feel a little bit bad for the children because it was a holiday and all, but Jeremiah and I are not the quintessential communicating couple and although I had tossed around some ideas with him, well, they never got from him saying, "Let me think about it." to "Yeah! Let's do..." So, we had a boring day where we cleaned up in Abigail's bedroom and sorted through clothes that were too big/too small and such. We did find all of the baby clothes we'd need for Daniel, so I guess you could say that we did accomplish something, but as the afternoon wore on, Jeremiah said, "Load up." When he says that, we usually don't know exactly where we'll go and what we'll do, but we just load up. He took us to Athens with the plan to watch the fireworks, which didn't start until 9:30pm. Needless to say, we had a few spare hours in the meantime. We got some supper and tried to look around WalMart, but children didn't cooperate and he got frustrated and we left (now he knows why grocery shopping with all 6 children isn't my favorite thing to do!). We got some gas, drove around a bit and then finally parked to wait for the fireworks. It was hot, children didn't want to sit in the van for 2+ hours and Jeremiah was getting cranky (it was his idea!) but we stuck it out and tried to have a little fun while we waited. :-) We enjoyed the fireworks, but I don't know if we'll go so early if we go next year. ;-)

We knew the fireworks would be at the park, but we didn't want to actually park in the park for all the traffic, so when we spotted them setting up we parked across the road in the parking lot of a restaurant. It made for a perfect view and a pretty quick get-away when they were finished.

It's so hard to wait!

Cutie Pie!

Waiting (not so pleasantly)...

Waiting...

Aha! The other children could take a lesson from Emily...never be without a book. :-)

Being goofy. :-) Trying to keep the mood light as it was a long wait in the van!

Samuel watched some of the fireworks from inside the van but got braver
as it went on and was soon out with the rest of us.

My guy!

Watching the fireworks. They were good, but I don't know if they were worth that long wait in the van,
however, it got us out of the house and was a free thing to do!

Even though the noise was minimal compared to what it was a couple of nights before this,
Sam still plugged his ears.

Happy 235th Birthday, America!