Happy Independence Day!

When we first met our next door neighbors, back in January, we inquired about the neighborhood. Both said it was a pretty quiet place, until the Fourth of July, when it becomes "a war zone". In the six months since, Jeff has proposed all sorts of ideas for how we should spend our Fourth, but I was curious to stick around home and see if all that we had heard was true. Literally every night since the 28th of June, when fire works went on sale, we have heard the familiar boom and crackle in the evening sky.

The neighboring city of Ridgefield hosts an Independence Day celebration that included a morning parade, so with Nathan and Auntie Jennifer in tow, we found our way to the small town that is Ridgefield and found our spot on the sidewalk. There were plenty of people anxiously waiting for the festivities to start and every kid seemed prepared with a plastic bag for collecting candy (and they were not disappointed).

We enjoyed the parade, which mostly included vehicles such as old cars, fire engines, tractors and tow trucks. There were local sports teams and of course, a local politician or two. Nathan seemed to most enjoy the farm equipment that rumbled by, while Aunt Jennifer fought back the eleven year olds to claim her share of the candy (which she left in our bag and I unfortunately ate too much of this afternoon). For a small town, I'd say we were all impressed with the parade, which lasted more than an hour.

This was a group of teens playing and singing live along the route. Pretty impressive!

While the celebration continued all day with pie eating contests, yummy foods, dancing and fire works, Nathan was pretty tuckered out so we headed home for siesta. Maybe next year we'll stick around a little longer. Then again, we'll have a younger one to consider (it's still hard to imagine life with two kiddos).

We enjoyed ribs for dinner followed by a summer staple in this house: strawberry shortcake. We contemplated keeping Nathan up to see fire works, but he was still worn out from our busy week and went to bed right on time at seven thirty. Jeff and I started to hear those familiar booms again, but it was  still rather light out. At about 9 PM, the sound of fire works sounded really close and quick peek out the back revealed two neighboring houses had begun to burn through their supplies. As it quickly became darker, Jeff and I found good viewing spots in the back and could watch fire works in two, sometimes three directions, across the neighborhood. The hour or so we spent watching would rival that of any show we've seen in Portland before! Huge displays literally above the tree tops!

And can you believe it...Nathan slept through every bit of it! He didn't wake once!

P.S. Fire works are still going off as I write this. ;)