Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Things that go BOOM!






Time for the big Fourth of July post!! As mentioned in a previous post it rained most of the day and the kids were disappointed they couldn't do a lot of daytime fireworks. That doesn't mean there wasn't anything going on, however.
My brothers, Matt and Jeff, had a couple of their buddies, James and Greg, over and the had a little fun shooting clay. My dad joined them and even Mom went out! The guys backed their trucks against the "back yard" at Matt's place and set up the little machine that flings out the clay discs. The machine they used on the 4th belonged to Greg and was triggered by a foot pedal. The kids were all assigned to the back of a truck so they would be safe.







The guys lined up and had a shooting competition - if the first guy missed, the second guy had a chance, if the second guy missed, the third guy had a shot, and so on. If the second guy busted the clay after the first guy missed, the first guy was out.

One of Jeff's boys, Thomas, wanted to play along so he got out his BB gun. That was some shooting fun for the younger ones - Ajay got to shoot for the first time and boy was he excited!




(Please ignore his ratty clothing - I didn't want him wearing anything nice for fear of not getting it clean again after all the mud!)

A tent was erected so people could stand outside with Richard, our Grill Guy. There was also another "tent" put up - a big blue tarp stretched between two vans and supported by a wooden "T" in the middle. Most of the people stayed outside despite the rain while a few opted to stay dry inside.







The kids tried some daytime fireworks in between downpours, but didn't get very far before it all started up again. That was the trailer used later in the evening to shoot off the nighttime works.



Around 9, Jeff drove Alex and I up to Mom and Dad's place so I could put the little guy to bed. I wasn't sure if we'd be shooting off the nighttime stuff and he was sleepy. After I got up to the house and Jeff had driven back to Matt's, we got a call saying the night-works were on, so Paige, Aunt Tina and Aunt Theresa and I headed back down (the others had gone up to the house to wait out the heaviest part of the storm). I didn't get many shots of the fireworks, but I was able to blind the onlookers - I had no idea what I was aiming at since the viewfinder on the camera only showed me a black screen. I think the pictures turned out okay, albeit a bit fuzzy.





(These two had fallen asleep before the end of the display.)

It was a wet and wild Independence Day. Lots of fun with family and friends and great food!
(So much for my diet!!)

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