The Wilson's House: Independence Day

Since I work for the state I am lucky enough to get the day before or the day after a holiday off if the holiday falls on a weekend. This year that meant I had Friday off for the 4th of July. I was super excited about that because every year Columbus has their July 4th celebration on July 3rd. Red White & Boom is one of the largest fireworks displays in the Midwest and is set to a wonderful soundtrack. Typically I amd rushing to get home from work so we can head down to our normal spot, but this year was going to be different.

Well it was different but not for the reasons I thought. Dave ended up stuck at work selling a car (which is great) and he didn't get home till almost 9:30. Thankfully a local TV station shows the fireworks on TV every year so we did get to see them together it was just in our living room. We did have a few minutes to kill before they started once Dave got home so we went out front and Dave helped the kids throw some of those pop things and he let off a few smokers. (most fireworks are illegal in Ohio so you are limited on what you can set off) I was able to catch this one picture of Dave and the kids. I love the look on Emma's face!

Unfortunately Dave's dealership was open on Saturday and everyone had to work. The kids and I, my family, and some friends all met here at our house and we walked the two blocks up to main street for the afternoon parade. The weather was perfect for the parade which is a change from the past few years and the rain. A good friend of mines husband runs a local skating rink and they are always in the parade. These friend also happen to take there kids to the same babysitter as us so the kids know them very well. Emma got super excited when she saw Tim in the back of a truck on the microphone being his silly self. She got even more excited when he saw her and said hi through the microphone. :)

After the parade everyone headed back to my house for some very yummy food and relaxation. Shortly after the food was ready we were surprised by Dave who got to come home early because his work was dead (big surprise). Sometime around 4ish the weather went south and it started raining. It was one of those rains that was just a constant drizzle. It stopped for a while around 7 so we decided that a little wetness was not going to stop our fun and we all headed down to the Elementary school for the festivities there. Typically Groveport has a bunch of inflatables and carnival games and rides as well as allot of food vendors but when the rain started this year a bunch of them packed up and headed home. There were still a few that stuck around and my kids had a blast.

The rain did help us get some very good seats for the show this year along one of the baseball fences. I put the kids wagon up against it and then hung a couple of large umbrellas off the fence so they had dry seats when they wanted to sit down. Here are a few pictures of some of my family and friends that sat with us this year.