4th of July

Melanie and I wielding our power (we were the only ones with lighters)

After finding out that my aunt and uncle were no longer going to make the trek to Oregon to see my family over the 4th of July because my cousin had a baseball game I decided to spend the day at their house. We always do 4th of July at their house because they live in the right part of Santa Ana where you are allowed to do fireworks. So my family having several pyros in it loves to get together and burn things to our heart's content. I went down to Brad and Carol's house about noon. I ate a leisurely lunch with Carol which was blessed to contain a bowl full of fresh raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. It can't get much better than that. The rest of the afternoon consisted of talking, relaxing and then getting food ready for the BBQ. The rest of the family started to come over about 6:00. All the Southern California family was there except Bob's family. The BBQ was amazing, everything a BBQ should be and more. We had fresh squeezed lemonade slushy (made from lemon's picked off the tree that afternoon), grilled zucchini (picked from Carol's garden), hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, watermelon, chips, corn on the cob, crackers, carrots, strawberries, and I'm sure much more. It was a stuffing experience as everything was so good. And then when I was stuffed I had to go back and eat more watermelon. It's my favorite food of summer. After dinner and kids were anxious for the fireworks to begin even though it was no where near dark. We fended them off for a while and then gave in and started to inventory the mass of fireworks we had collected from various members of the family. We had a pretty good haul. The kids started off by doing sparklers for a while. Melanie, Mike and I were in charge of putting together the show. As is typical I was the behind the scenes person and Mike and Melanie were the ones actually setting things up (with help from several of the not quite old enough to plan, but old enough to light the fire cousins). I must say we put on a great show.
A sample of the firework show

I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. After the fireworks we partook in the greatness of Barbara's homemade strawberry ice cream. Heaven in a bowl. It is a 4th of July tradition. After the festivities were over and partially cleaned up Melanie, Mike and I decided to go and see Hancock. I enjoyed it but I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed by it. It was fun and weird with a kind of twisted plot. So I'd say I wouldn't jump to go see it if you haven't but it's not a bad movie. After our adventures of the day I stayed at my grandparent's house since I didn't want to drive back to LA at that time of night on the 4th of July. It was a holiday to remember, 4th of July always is.
(Sadly I forgot my camera and had to steal these pictures from my cousin's facebook profile. Hopefully she will put more up and I can steal them as well.)