4th of July fun!

Since we road tripped to MI the weekend before the 4th this year, we were at our own house for the first time in years for Independence Day. It gave us a chance to check out how Lexington celebrates our nation's birthday.

I'll give them an A+ for the parade and street fair. Lots to see and do downtown during the day. Although, there were some pretty scary horror-film type characters in the parade that freaked the kids out a little, but, then again, Sam also hides behind us when Big Boy parades by, too, so I'm not sure I have the best grasp on what they think is scary or not... :)

We had met up with friends on Saturday for the parade then wandered around downtown for a little while before heading back to their house for an impromptu backyard party complete with cornhole, wine and pizza. Later in the evening, we caravanned back downtown for the fireworks.

Unfortunately, Lexington does not receive a high mark for their fireworks, though. I think if we had stayed downtown for the big free concert that was going on and gotten a good spot to sit early in the day, we would have had a better experience. But, arriving in the evening was pretty awful in terms of parking and crowds (we just dodged being caught in the middle of a gang fight!). It really wasn't worth the hassle. See how thrilled everyone looks?

We actually watched the fireworks with a catwalk blocking half of our view because our kids both had meltdowns from the chaos and the noise of the fireworks.

So, we decided to do a fireworks do-over on Sunday night and it totally made up for the bust the night before. We drove down to Richmond, where we work, and went to the house of a friend from work who lives in the neighborhood right before the lake where the city of Richmond was shooting it's fireworks show.

It was a great do-over...we were able to see the fireworks from their backyard and the kids were much more at ease being settled in and having fun with a small group long before the start of the fireworks.

And while we did miss our traditional 4th of July events like the parades in MI (Onaway/Port Hope/Port Austin) and the flea marketing and fireworks with family, we did enjoy not packing and traveling for the holiday and just spending time together.

Happy Birthday to our great nation and thank you to all those who have been part of keeping it the land of the free and the home of brave!