Heartland on the 4th

The July 4th holiday went well this year. Despite the early heat, the sounding of the tornado sirens and the rain. At least I didn't have to take anyone to the emergency room this year. All the kids finished the night with all of their fingers and only one had a slight burn, but not from the fireworks.

We went again this year to a friends house. He is a hobby-smoker - that is, he smokes meat for a hobby, not...you know...other things. He has a good sized Independence Day shindig and we attended last year and had quite a bit of fun. His kids are in the same scout troop as my boys. In fact his oldest and my middle boy have been together since cub scouts.

They are great people and we always have fun there. It was a little touch and go. It was a question between traveling to Lawrence to do the 4th with the 5/8's bible thumping Phelps-ish father and her snotty sisters. But our friends in town won out (go figure). Plus, we knew there'd be beer at the party here, and...uh water in Lawrence.

As is our tradition, we waited until July 4 to obtain our fireworks. We do that because it is just too dang tempting to want to light some off before hand. And fireworks are like potato chips, in that you can't do just one. So in order to save the family savings account, we wait until the 4th to get any.

This year was even more relaxing than past years. No. 1 Son is almost 15 years old and No. 2 Son is almost 13. Together they were able to police and keep sanity over the younger kids and need only distant adult supervision. Before I had always felt the need to be right there to make sure they didn't do something stupid. But this year, I was content to sit in a chair at the curb of the park and watch them do their thing.

The other thing good about this year, is that No. 1 Son has his license, so I didn't have to worry too much about how much beer I drank! (w00t).