4th of July Fun!

We started the day with our own bang with Glen finally arriving home from Asia. We were so ecstatic to have him home again, and the poor guy was completely exhausted with his schedule reversed (Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of here).

Then after a little weather scare (you know severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings...funnel clouds spotted 3 miles away) that put into question whether we would ever want to leave the house...we ended up having a wonderful 4th of July celebration.

The kids had fun getting decked out in their patriotic clothes.

Then we headed downtown DC to go watch the fireworks from the top of a friend's office building. It was our first experience with watching from such a grand and pleasant vantage point. We completely enjoyed being able to sit in comfortable chairs, having a catered dinner (even though it was picnic fare--it's always so nice to eat things I didn't cook myself), and most importantly having clean restrooms easily accessible!

Our vantage point.

The whole firework and social experience was quite enjoyable, but it started to go downhill from there. There was more than an hour wait to get our car from the parking garage who had shifted to valet only for the night. While we were waiting we got to witness drunkards doing most unpleasant things, see mice scurry, and have the kids whimper and melt in exhaustion (except Ellie who was in especially rare form--giggling, talking, and bouncing).

It might be said that I had a little too much fun doing their hair!

We finally got home at midnight and I'm not sure who was more tired at that point...the kids who were several hours past their bedtimes or Glen who was severely jetlagged after a 15 hour flight. Afterwards we were very grateful we went downtown this year as the two fireworks shows closest to our home where we normally attend, were both cut short due to major firework malfunctions that injured several children...a couple fairly severely. Note: Since I wrote this I have learned that some friends of ours including a little boy in Emma's kindergarten class were among the injured. He and especially his Dad were hurt pretty badly but should be fine. Their friends they were with were injured much more severely and will remain in the hospital for some time still. What a sad story that suddenly hits a lot closer to home when it's a friend.

All in all it was quite a fun day, but the best part of it all was definitely having Daddy back from his trip! It was lonely around here without him!