4th of July F-U-N

 

There are few Fourth of July's that I can honestly say are very memorable since we have lived here in Vegas...I am always longing for those silly parades, ridiculously crazy ward breakfasts in the pavilions, bbq's at the parks, the awesome firework show that you can see even if you're not attending the Stadium of Fire, and just the beautiful weather that Utah has to offer around this time of year. I always get homesick for Utah in the summer, but especially around the fourth of July! However, I have to say that this Fourth of July will not be forgotten. We went to our friend's mom's house to swim for the afternoon, which was nothing short of great food, non-stop laughter and games (both with adults and for the kids!) great company, and non-stop fun. We had planned on swimming for a few hours, and didn't realize that we ended up staying the entire afternoon. Thank you Janice for hosting us all!

Later that night, the Ahlander's had decided to host a bunch of us families, and we again ate great food, enjoyed non-stop laughter, had awesome free entertainment, and saw by far the coolest home firework show I have ever seen. First off, I have to give some major kudos to Spencer Holt who had all 20+ kids (of ALL ages!) eating OUT of his hand in a matter of 2 seconds with whatever crazy Canadian tag game he was having them play...but the fun didn't stop there. We went to go and light what I thought was a normal firework show...until I saw Kenny lighting the kids' sparklers with what only can be described as a BLOW TORCH. To much surprise, we had no casualties with any of the kids and their sparklers.




I can't even begin to describe what happened next. Do we call this the O'Connell special? Everyone had brought a "few" fireworks to share, and I thought we would be there for an hour, watching the dads light them off one by one, until we were all done. I did NOT expect what we got...(and pictures do not do this justice!)
(this is the FIRST round of fireworks before going off...)

(this is the first round of fireworks going off - all at the same time!)
(and this is in between rounds, when some of the smoke had finally died down enough to see again!)
I'm still not sure who to blame for what happened that night, but there are seriously no words for what the husbands all did that night together. They somehow managed to light off ALL 20-30 fireworks at the same time, which produced more smoke that I have ever seen from any campfire, and the noise that came from it all had to have been heard in Pahrump...it was CRAZY. We quickly noticed that the kids were either 1: totally and utterly captivated or 2: so freaked out, they will not even want to touch another firework in their life! (and keep in mind, there were enough of these to go TWO rounds!) In someone else's words, "that firework show just ruined any other thing that you will try and do again on your own. Nothing will ever be able to top that."
Thank you to everyone that came that night to make it a most memorable one! Jared, your firework dance will not be forgotten, and neither will your "Star Spangled Banner" rendition that you, Russ, and Kenny attempted to sing amidst the show! (and how they all forgot the words to our National Anthem at the EXACT same place is still beyond me!)
And by the way, Trista, it was great having you here with us! We give you and Miles KUDOS for being troopers through everything! We had a great time with you guys!!