Our 4th

I know it is over a week later, but I finally have gotten around to thinking and writing about our Independence Day holiday.
We usually go camping with my family over the 4th - a tradition that extends way back to my childhood, when my 9 siblings and parents would join up with my aunt and uncle and their 10 children to go camping.
but this year was not feasible for us for various reasons .. one of them being baby K, the other being a wedding (more on that later).
So we had a backyard barbecue instead, with my in-laws and one of my brothers and his family.
It was actually very nice to just have a small number of people around. Not that we wouldn't welcome more.
So after filling our tummies full of good eats ((side not .. why do holidays center around food so much? Is it just American? Or do other countries center around food? Ah .. thoughts for another day's post.)
So we lit some minor fireworks while it was still pretty light out.
Miss M was prepared, as you can see in the photo, for the ones that made noise, or the ones that were bright.
We all lined up and waited to see what G had in store for us. He and the kids had gone down to a fireworks stand the night before and picked out some goodies.
Later after dessert, we all went back out and watched the light show - this time with brighter sparklies than earlier. A neighbor actually had some type of canon in the street setting off a loud BOOM; that rattled the windows, shook the rafters and scared the dog. A fitting sound for the remembrance of the War for Independence.