Evan's 1st Fourth of July

The Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays, next to Christmas and New Year's Eve. As a kid, we'd always celebrate at home with our own fireworks display in the backyard. My parents would buy a few sparklers, snakes, tanks, those weird chicken things that would shoot out balls of fire from their ass (to give the appearance they were laying eggs) and screech like a chicken, some snappers, and for the grand finale mom & dad would buy a few fountains that showered out colored sparks... We always celebrated (modestly) at my house as a kid. We lived in a town that fireworks were illegal, but we did this in moderation. I remember one year when my dad bought a rocket. Not really knowing how far it'd go and the outcome of it, he set it off in the backyard. It shot probably about 200 feet in the air and exploded in a shower of sparks. Being maybe 9 or 10 years old at the time, I thought it was amazing. I still remember my dad wincing at the sight, afraid he disturbed our neighbors.

In years since, in my adulthood, I've been able to celebrate the 4th of July is some amazing locations...Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia. After Linda graduated college, she went on a 20-city-20-week promotional tour for Better Homes & Gardens...setting up displays in different malls throughout the country. Since I work for an airline, whenever she was in a city that my airline flew to, I'd fly out to visit her for a few days and see the sights. On July 4, 2001, she was in Hartford, CT, and I flew out to see her. One of the guys on her tour was a local from Boston. He had a friend that lived in a Brownstone right on the waterfront of the Charles River. Each year, the Boston Pops puts on quite the show...also including several other musicians (that year was Cyndi Lauper)...and they set off a huge fireworks display set to patriotic music, with the grand finale set to Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture". We sat on top of this Brownstone apartment, above the massive crowds below and watched the amazing display. That had to be the best 4th of July I've ever had.

Jesse, Holly, Ellen, Nicole, Mark, Linda & me on top of the Brownstone apartment

One of my favorite pictures of Linda taken at an afternoon BBQ in Boston on July 4, 2001

Linda & me chilling on a hammock in a backyard in Boston.

The following year, Linda & I were visiting friends in Washington DC. While we didn't really see much of the fireworks over Capitol Hill, we were at a bar in Georgetown. We were a bit too far away from the display, but we were able to briefly see the display up the Potomac River. All I have to say about that trip is "lee-mone-ade"! (Inside joke that few will catch.)

Chad, Mike, Ellen, me, Deanna & Linda at Mo's Bar in Washington DC

Me at the Lincoln Memorial - July 5, 2002

A few years later, my company was opening up service to Philadelphia and asked for employees to volunteer to walk in their annual parade through the streets of Philly. I volunteered Linda & me, and we were able to stay in downtown Philly and see the sights. That night we watched the fireworks go off over the Philadelphia Museum of Art (the place where the "Rocky" stairs are...which I wanted to reenact but it was too damn hot).

Some of my coworkers and me getting ready to walk in the Philly parade - July 4, 2004

Me on the "Rocky" stairs - Philadelphia Museum of Art

Linda at the Liberty Bell

Walking in the parade down Benjamin Franklin Parkway toward the Philly Museum of Art

Linda & me with Ben Franklin

Last year, Linda & I celebrated at home in Kansas City with their cool fireworks display over the Missouri River.

I couldn't figure out how to flip this video right-side-up, but this is the fireworks display from last year. Just turn your head to the right.

So as you can see, we've celebrated and experienced Independence Day all over the country. Each 4th of July has it's own memories. This year, however, we had to celebrate a day early. Due to my work schedule (I had to work a double at that), we went over to a friend's house to grill out. We were out kinda late, and Evan did remarkably well! It was great to hang out on their deck...and Evan just chilled out in his travel swing! It was just a low-key, chill kinda 4th of July. But we did end the night with an interesting game of "I Never...". Is it weird that thirtysomethings were playing this? This is Evan's first, and I'm hoping that he will be able to celebrate in some cool locations throughout his life...

Evan & his dad

Mother & son

Evan's honorary Aunt Jen

Evan's honorary Aunt Abbie

Evan's honorary Aunt Darcy

Evan's idea of chilling out

It's funny though, how much your perspective changes after you have a child. Our neighborhood is in downtown Kansas City. It's a historic neighborhood that was built at the turn of the 1900s...so the houses are very close to one another. Well, on the actual 4th of July, we had a bunch of idiot neighbors setting off several fireworks...and not just the run-of-the-mill bottle rockets, but near professional grade loud boomers that shot in the air and showered sparks down. As soon as we put Evan down for the night, the neighbors started with these fireworks... I worried about it waking Evan up, however he did well. For once, Mother Nature worked in our favor...no more than 5 minutes after our neighborhood lit up with fireworks, we got several torrential downpours of rain. This worked for a bit, but our neighbors still wanted to celebrate and decided to wait...til 2:00am to set of their stash. Hoping next year will be a bit more active...Evan should be old enough to enjoy fireworks, somewhat.