Happy 3rd of July!

The city of Lincoln almost lost their fireworks show this year due to all the budget cuts, but fortunately private groups were able to raise enough funds to host their own fireworks display for the town. Unfortunately, by the time they were able to raise the funds there were no aerial fireworks vendors left who were available to host the show on the 4th, so they opted instead to have a July 3rd display. I think it worked out perfectly!



We got to the park about an hour before showtime, and there was still plenty of room to set up our blanket and chairs. We snagged a parking spot at the boys' school, so we only had to walk about a block and a half too!


Making silly faces makes the time pass quickly!

All snuggled up and waiting for the sun to go down ♥

Poor Sutton took quite a fall earlier today when he tripped over a beach towel he was wearing, so he's sporting a nice fat lip and a scratched up nose tonight :(

I might as well get in on this funny face thing too!

Finally, after an hour of silly faces, dancing with glow sticks and being bombarded by Junebugs, it was SHOWTIME!!!

I was having a blast shooting the fireworks with my big camera this year - the exposure time was totally unpredictable (anywhere from 1/6 sec to 10 seconds depending on the # of fireworks and how bright they were), and I wasn't really even sure what I was shooting, so it was fun to come home and see that I'd captured some of these action shots.

The city put on a fantastic show!!! It went on for such a long time - there were two or three times that they shot off a bunch of finale-worthy fireworks, and we all cheered and thought it was over, but then it kept on going! Sutton was snuggled up in my lap, and after every firework he'd give me a running commentary, "Glittery...that one's like a star...that one's like a spider...like a palm tree..." but after awhile I noticed that he had gone quiet and was barely able to keep his eyes open.

Curled up with Daddy, Sawyer didn't make it to the end either...

Even when the finale booms were so loud that I had to cover Sutton's ears for him, Sawyer didn't wake up at all!

On our walk back to the car, the entire street across from the park was lined with the BIG finale-sized fireworks that you buy from the stands, and they were all being set off at the same time. It was SO noisy, but really, really cool! We all had a wonderful night...and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all this late-night excitement will encourage the boys to sleep in a little in the morning! :)