July 4th 2012

Since our beautiful state has had all of those horrible fires the last few weeks, fireworks were banned.  This was not only smart, but so necessary because of the dry conditions we've had.
My family was packed on the 4th and ready to head to Nebraska to get together with family, but with the incredibly hot weather conditions, we had a change of plans and instead only made it as far as Cheyenne, Wyoming.
We stopped to get some fireworks in Cheyenne and learned of a free shooting range they have for people to shoot their fireworks.  The kids were instantly excited!

We got to the field by 8:30 and waited in line.  There were hundreds of families and it was lots of fun.  The fire department, ambulance and police were stationed at the event all night long, so it gave us old folks peace of mind (:

The way they had it set up was that they had 30 "stations" for the families to light their fireworks.  The families were picked up in little utility trucks and taken to their station and then they would pick them back up when they were finished and drop you off at the gate and pick up another family and so on.  This meant we literally watched the world's longest fireworks display.  I'm NOT kidding!  There was a large concession stand and port-o-potties too, although, I'm VERY glad that none of us had to use one. (:

Here is the kids' stash:  I had this swimming bag in the car and had to go get it when the cheap "Walmart" type bags ripped open with the fireworks..

While waiting in line, the hubs told me he thought the city's official fireworks display was also going on behind us, so I just had to check it out:

So glad I did!


The kiddos anxiously waiting their turn:

Finally, it was the Silva's turn to load up into the little utility truck thing.  The kids hopped on first and sat cris-cross, so that meant that the hubs and moi had to ride on the mini tailgate! Now, I'll be the first to admit that the hubs and I both have quite a bit of junk in our trunk and thought we would be thrown off at any bump we hit. HA!

The driver almost left without me as I was taking these pics!

God is good and nobody was hurt with the big fireworks, except that Marko got a small burn on the tip of his thumb while lighting a Sparkler for Tita!  That only happened because they sure don't make punks like they used to, so he used a lighter.  I remember using one punk all night long as a kid as long as we blew on it to keep it lit.  Not anymore.


We had a really great time and we'll definitely be back next year!


Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th!