I love the Fourth of July.  I love fireworks, launching rockets, flying the plane (which I missed out on this year because it was too rainy), eating hamburgers and pie, sparklers, and waiting around for something exciting to happen.  The Fourth of July is a great holiday because you don’t have to get all riled up about presents and making sure your turkey is done so everyone stays salmonella free…it’s just one of those delicious holidays where you can just BE.

Be together.

This Fourth was perfect.

It was just what the doctor ordered.

About 7:00, we all headed down to get ready to watch the fireworks.  The Cedar Rapids Municipal Band was playing at 8:00 and, while I like to be downtown no later than 5:00, we managed to get great seats to listen to them.

Mom and I made sandwiches and everyone munched on chips, chocolate cake while they waited.

(Oh, oh.  This is not related but still awesome.  I don’t like sandwiches, so I picked out the lunch meat from mine and put the bread back on the plate.  The Brother wanted another sandwich, so he picked up my meatless bread and started eating it.  HALFWAY THROUGH he started freaking out, like “GAH!  What happened to this sandwich!”  It was worth the price of admission.  I was so proud.)

The Kid smoked on some of Laura’s chocolate-dipped pretzels even though the festivities were a No Smoking Facility.

You know, I just realized that I never got to eat a single one of those things.  I need a weekend do-over.

Anyway, the sun began to set, the band began to play, and we all pretty much talked while we listened.

“Look, there’s an old guy sitting down there reading a sheet of music.  Do you think he’s the backup conductor in case the real one dies or something,” Brother asked.

We all agreed that that must be the situation.

“Joey, take a picture of Sister and I,” I asked.  He obliged.  Then, we heard snickering behind us…

It was BROTHER…RUINING our picture.

This may be my favorite picture from the entire weekend.  It’s just so classic.  Sister looks righteously indignant, Brother looks sinister, and I am obviously appalled.

Poor Stephen hurt himself very badly playing softball last week, so he spent much of the evening relaxing in a camp chair and trying not to be in too much pain.  This is actually one of the only pictures of him from the entire event, poor thing.

By the time the band stopped playing, we had discovered that our seats were going to stink for the fireworks.  So we picked up all our stuff and started walking until we found a spot that seemed just right.  We plunked our blankets, chairs and loud laughter down on a nice, dewey grassy spot and waited.

We attempted to take a sibling picture, but somehow Brother blocked everyone’s view.  So we moved out to the road and tried again.

We actually look like very nice, normal people in this picture.

Do not be deceived.

I was thrilled to run into my friend Sarah from HIGHSCHOOL, and we both agreed that it has been nearly 10 years since we saw each other.  She moved to Uganda today, so we had a great time catching up and filling each other in on everything that we have missed in the last ten years.

Isn’t she cute?

It was great to see her.  (THANKS FOR MEETING ME, RAH!)

Then, it was finally, finally time for the fireworks.

I am not ashamed to admit that I nearly cried through the entire national anthem, but I realized that my tears were screwing up my ability to view the fireworks, so I cut that out as soon as possible.

Joey had his tripod set up and had a great time taking pictures of the fireworks instead of watching them.

I, on the other hand, sat in the back by my parents and clapped way more than anyone else did when there were pretty fireworks.  Oh well.

I loved the dark, misty, smoky ambiance the fireworks provided.

(This is Joey’s favorite firework picture.)

The fireworks were the best I’ve ever seen.  And I’m not just saying that because I was so happy to be home, they really WERE the best.

When the show was over, we all picked up our blankets (I wore mine) and chairs and coolers and headed back to the cars, which were much further away than they had been before we moved.

Joey lagged behind to take pictures of things that caught his eye, so it wound up being me, Mom, Dad and……………….Joey.

We did get this sweet picture out of the deal, though.  The smoke and glowing lights cast a really orange aura over everything.

By the time we finally made it back to the car, it was obvious that none of the cars were going anywhere.  It was a Traffic jam with a capital T.  So…we made the best of it.  We got the camp chairs out and sat around while we waited, until Joey suggested we go try to take some crazy pictures.

The Kid and I are up for anything, so we went over to the grassy area where we were least likely to get ran over by a road-rage-filled Fourth of July reveler.  Joey set up the time delay thingy on his camera and when he gave his signal, Hunter aimed the flash of another camera up in the air…and The Kid and I jumped.

The effect is pretty cool.

Soon, everyone was getting in on the action.

The Kid has major ups here.

This is the one where everyone jumped too early…and I didn’t jump at all.

And this may be the world’s best picture of Brother and Laura.  They look amazing.

This kept us amused for awhile, but soon, everyone was kind of feeling like this:

Poor The Kid.

So we rowdies went back over to the car where the adults were still sitting, talking about whatever it is that adults talk about.  Joey still had his camera out, so we sisters requested a sister picture.

How nice we look.

Oh wait…what is that back there…something seems different…

IT IS POPS…the picture crasher! (This picture is amazing.  I will save it for when I am having a bad day, because every time I look at it I laugh.)

He cracks us all up real bad, as you can see.

Joey set his tripod up for one group picture, and we all squished in, big happy family that we are.

We finally got home at midnight.

I never once went to bed when I was supposed to this entire trip home.