The friend I called very kindly invited us to join them for a carnival and fireworks show in downtown Homewood, about fifteen minutes from our house. She gave me directions and told me where to park, so I loaded the kids back up and got there at about 8:00 pm (I had called Marcus from the road to tell him where we were going.) I told the kids about the carnival rides on the way over (which turned out to be another mistake). When we arrived, the lines for the rides were much longer than they had been earlier in the evening. Once again, I silenced my inner voice and stepped into a ridiculously long line and began entertaining the boys while we waited. More than thirty minutes later, we were up next. Unfortunately, that is also the moment when the ride attendant announced that the fireworks were about to start and this would be the last ride. Bummer. We were standing with a group of good friends from church, and only one of the six children waiting were going to be allowed to ride. My friends were kind enough to let Caleb be the one to ride, since we had had such a long night. The smile on his face while he was flying around on those swings almost made it all worth it. (Almost, but not quite.) Two minutes later, he got off the ride and we all headed back to the chairs for the fireworks show.
Meanwhile, Marcus had driven back to the neighborhood to put a couple of signs up for the dog we had taken back to our house. Within ten minutes of the signs being up, a guy called Marcus's cell about the missing dog. Apparently, the guy had been driving around the neighborhood looking for the dog. Marcus gave him directions to our house and then headed back home to meet him there. The guy was a little weird, but definitely grateful to have his dog back. His name was actually Billy Bob. No, really, that was his name. And to make matters worse, the dog's name was Billy Bob, too. (We found out later from our friends that his dog gets out regularly and Billy Bob is frequently driving around looking for him.) After Billy Bob and Billy Bob left, Marcus tried to meet up with me and the boys, but things were too hectic at the carnival, so he just headed back home.
Anyway, back to us at the fireworks show. The fireworks themselves did not disappoint. That was actually the best 10 minutes of the evening. Caleb was mesmerized with the explosions of light, and I had enough food left in my bag to keep Ethan still for the duration. When it was over, another friend was kind enough to help me and the kids get back through the maze of cars and people to our car. Then we sat in stop-and-go traffic for 25-30 minutes before things finally started moving. I was almost home at 10:30 pm when my friend (the one whose house we'd gone to originally) called. She was so sweet and so very, very apologetic. She explained that she thought the 4th was going to be observed on Monday night instead of Sunday night (as it actually was in some places), so she thought we were coming over Monday night. We laughed and laughed about the misunderstanding, and then made plans to get together on Monday night instead. I pulled in the driveway with two sleeping boys at 10:45 pm, carried them up to their beds, and had two glasses of wine before retiring myself. This was certainly an unforgettable 4th of July :)
Some pics of our friends at the fireworks show.
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