july 4th kilt-o-sac of FIRE!!!

Translation: Cul-de-sac of FIRE!!!
It's practically bigger than Christmas. This year was a quieter one at the Smith's for the 4th; a big reunion for the extended Smith's is planned for next weekend at Tahoe. So the ones traveling to that decided to save some gas moola and passed on the celebration. The first 4th of July Aaron misses will be when he's dead.

There's the usual chalking of the kilt-o-sac. It serves two purposes: make it look nice and festive and to mark off the exploding area. That's the inner circle. The inner circle also serves as the place for theme of that particular year. This year it was left empty; just as our hearts and the Smith home was left empty with the absence of family. How's that for over dramatic?

There's the food part. Good food all day long. BBQ, snacks, homemade ice cream. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

There's the lighting of the fireworks bought from the reservation. It's a glorious place to buy fireworks from, way better than a grocery stores' parking lot. Aaron did a bang up job this year and scored a lot for a little.

There's the family and friends for good company.

There's walking over to the lake and watching the big show.

There's nothing else like it.

I love the 4th of July.

tank wars

setting up the snake pit

watching safely and guarding over what's left of the loot

Those last pictures are of the now infamous scooter ride. The dads--Aaron and Derek--took their kids on a ride through the woods near the house on some scooters. While they were gone, we heard and felt a huge, BOOM! You tend to hear those throughout the day. About ten minutes later, Corgan and Jenna come inside the house crying and shaken up. I ask Corgan what happened ((the dads are nowhere to be seen)). He tells me of bad guys dressed in black throwing bombs at them and of police and the bad guys running and Derek and Aaron yelling. I was lost without translation. Ten minutes later, the dads return and fill us in on the story. They had gotten off the scooters and they saw some teenagers looking around and acting suspicious. Derek yells at the one kid, he pays no attention, and lights a sparkler bomb and tosses it into the woods. No more that 100 feet from where they were standing!! Derek yells again and the idiot lights off another one! Aaron and Derek get the attention of a parking ticket cop, who then calls the real cops and within minutes the woods where they are, are covered with about 10 officers. They find the boys and the dads pick out the one responsible for being irresponsible. The funny thing was that they had ditched the scooters off the trail ((not supposed to be riding them back in them there woods)). They couldn't go back and get them with all the cops around. I was afraid they would get picked up. So the moms--me and Forrest--go trekking out there to retrieve the scooters. If I would have seen the idiot who lit the bombs and put my boy in danger and scared him half to death, I would have punched him in the face.