4th of July

The 4th of July is super exciting in Lincoln, Nebraska. These Nebraskans take their fireworks seriously. We had a such a fun day, but we were having so much fun, I forgot to take any pictures and Ken got a measly 3 of the hot dog shooter (more info on that later in the post.)

We started our morning off with a Ward pancake breakfast and bike parade at Holmes Lake Park. Reilly and Luke decorated their bikes, Kadie decorated her roller skates, Aidan declined participation. We mixed up 5 gallons of orange juice in our cooler and headed off to the park with our gas camping stove to start cooking pancakes.

We enjoyed visiting with everyone. The kids had fun in the parade. (Luke and Kadie are so cautious on their selected forms of transportation. It is quite comical.) I don't have any pictures though :(

We bought fireworks on the way home from the breakfast.

I made the kids help clean the house.

By law, you are only allowed to buy fireworks on the 3rd and 4th of July. Fireworks that shoot in the air are legal. We have some friends that live just outside of Lincoln that we spent the evening with. They have a traditional 4th of July celebration. They invite many people over, everybody brings meat to grill and a side dish to share. Everyone brings fireworks to share. Before it gets dark, the kids do snaps, sparklers, these parachute fireworks that are so cool, and all the loud firecracker type stuff. After dark, the real display starts. It was amazing. Luke had so much fun he refused to leave when it was all over. Kadie hated the fireworks. She insisted I buy her ear plugs or she wasn't coming at all. When the fireworks started, she came to tell me that the ear plugs didn't work and I better do something about it. I was less than sympathetic. (She was totally being a party pooper.) As we were heading back into Lincoln there were fireworks lighting up the sky everywhere. Even though we weren't home for the evening, we awoke to a yard full of firework debris the following morning.


A man came with the hot dog shooter that they use at baseball and football games here. Ken thought is was way cool. The kids, and a few missionaries, ran out to the field to try and catch an air-born hotdog. Aidan caught one! (Yay.) As I said, these are the only pictures Ken snapped from the whole day...all of the hotdog guy.

And a video of the hotdog shooter: