Land of the Free

July 4th is my favorite holiday.
I love fireworks.
I may be a pyro...
I love the summer feel.
The BBQ's.
The family time.
The smell of fireworks.
I was so worried about not being home for this holiday.
For weeks leading up to it, my mom and i throw pop-its.
Everyone here made fun of me for loving fireworks so much.
I still made it fun though.
So, the day before Independence Day i went home with Ashley from work.
We went to her aunt and uncles. Played some corn hole. Ate dinner. Read in the shade of a tree.
Waited for dark and the chance to see a couple thousand dollars worth of fireworks explode right over me.

Her uncle works for something or other and got this stash. Nice.
After the show was over we went and slept at ashley's house in cleveland.
The next morning we went to the Lakewood Parade. This city is right on Lake Erie.
The parade was not like any parade in Utah. It was mostly groups and clubs in the area
throwing candy. 2 high school bands. 1 float. Yup, 1.

And there it is. I decided to make the most of it anyway. I was waving my flag and yellin and throwin pop-its.
After the parade i found a small fire in these people's garage and put it out. Woo!
Then we waited for some people from camp and went to lunch.
After lunch we went to ashley's boyfriends' house and played fooseball and card games.
Basically hung out until dinner.
After dinner we went to the Lakewood fireworks.
Fireworks being shot off over Lake Erie. So cool.
The firework show was sooooo long and amazing! I have never seen a finale like that one.

Then we walked back to someone's house where we parked and played with sparklers while waiting for traffic to die.

 It wasn't a terrible 4th of July.
I still missed my home.
Especially since I didn't get to do any fireworks... besides sparklers and pop-its.
No parachutes, no snakes, no fountains.
And with new firework laws in Utah, a lot more of them are legal. All the cool ones.
So i missed that. And the annual block party was in my circle.
Oh well. I had a good time and made memories.
I yelled "I LOVE AMERICA" multiple times out the car window while holding my $2 flag outside.