Well for the past several years we have held our own fireworks show at the house! Brandt is usually working so it started off with just me and the kids! Now it has grown to good friends and finally our neighbors are starting to join in so that together it is truly spectacular without all the traffic!!
I think our first year at it was with Lorenzo right before Dale was born! The big excitement for us that year was one of the large boxes fired off at me instead of the air and I was high tailing it towards the house with my butt taking the lead in one of those cartoon style runs!! Very hilarious and fortunately no one or no thing was hurt!!
Then our second year I think Brandt was there and the yard caught on fire but we were able to put it out! The following year which I believe was last year while I was busy setting off the large guns a friend (Glen) and a few others discovered my large garbage bin sitting up under the roof edge was engulfed in flames higher then the edge of my roof!! Slamming the lid down and adding a hose fixed the problem and miraculously nothing else caught on fire and the trash can was completely safe!! No scorches or burns!! So hilariously I heard about this second hand even though I was there!! ;-)
This year was the best in everyway!! Lots of oohs and aahs!! It was windy and a storm was coming so things flew in different directions unexpectedly and we kept having to adjust so that we were far enough away from the house and our neighbors on one side.
Our main excitement of the evening was again a large fireworks box one of the first that I didn't go out far enough from the house yet and as I lit it I realized I wasn't so sure it was correctly upright so for that horrible igno second I considered the option to snuff it out and decided that if it didn't work I would be toast, but you know how things happen so fast, that as I ran desparately away from it I could see the first few explode towards me and I curled up into a ball in hopes I didn't get hit and then turned my head to see what would happen to everyone else and my home!! There was nothing I could have done! Miraculously everyone was safe!! My front porch lit up as bright as day but...nothing...no fire, no damage!! No one was hurt! One friend (Eric) had one land on his shorts but he managed to instinctively grab it and throw it before it exploded! Wow!! We were all laughing in relief and all our adrenaline was sky high!!
Another friend's (Eliza) brother who was visiting towards the very end after several sparklers decided to grab the hot end with her hand after it burned out! Then after everyone had left Dale had another of many sparklers for the evening and he decided after it had gone out to touch his bottom lip with it to see how warm it was!! Sigh...yes he obviously got burned!!
So much adrenaline caused me to crash that night and the next day!! Although some of it I'm sure was from swimming for 3 hours during the hottest part of the day! Whew!
Everyone plans on coming again for New Year's!! Yay!!
Even our neighbors came over to check on us and to plan for the next 4th of July!!