A great 4th of July celebration to remember (Part II)

After leaving the festivities behind, we all headed back to Aunt Dalene’s house for the night. As we realized that the house was pretty full of weary travelers, we decided to check a few hotels for availability and found a nice quaint place with a decent price tag. We figured it would be nice to have a quiet place to lay our heads and a bathroom we wouldn’t have to wait in line for. Plus if you notice in the picture below, it had all you can eat cereal from the General Mills silos. After checking in, we continued our way to Dalene’s house to participate in the fireworks show. Since Arizona is too hot and dry in the summer time, fireworks are illegal but in Idaho, anything goes. The kids lined up along the porch and were soon in harmony, “oooh, aaaaah, oooh, aaaah, as they watched the fireworks display. After all the good ones were lit and sent skywards, the kids enjoyed shooting roman candles and twirling sparklers. After the backyard fireworks display, we headed back to our room ready to hit the hay. After a good nights sleep, we journeyed our way down to 14th street to watch the Idaho Falls parade. The kids properly stretched and warmed up in order to gather as much candy as they possible could. In previous years, the candy would rain down from nearly every float. Not this year. You know the economy is bad when the candy count is down. However the parade still provided great entertainment. After the parade, we had lunch back at Dalene’s and enjoyed a great feast. At 2:00 the annual softball game started. As I stood there lined up waiting to bat, I had flashbacks of my youth baseball games, where I hit home run after home run, often winning the game! I remembered all of the diving catches in the out field, and the 90 mph fastballs I hurled over the plate. Strike one, strike two, steeeeriiiiiike three, as the umpire yelled, you’re out! The smell of hot dogs permeating the air and the sound of the crowd cheering, Wynn, Wynn, Wynn…..watch out…crack! Apparently while waiting to bat I had dozed off in my fantasy baseball dream and was hit in the head with a foul ball. Ok not really but it sure makes a better story than just getting up to bat and hitting a fly ball, making it to first, and then getting thrown out at second on the next play.

After the softball game ended, we jumped in the car and drove over to Aunt Linda and Uncle John. They happen to live about 2 miles away from Aunt Dalene’s house. Upon arriving, we found ourselves mingling with 2 giant pans of chocolate brownies and rice crispy treats. The kids ran outside and played on the airplane teeter totter with cousins they’re not quite familiar with. This didn’t stop them from playing together and they had a great time.
Around 8:30 we all decided it was time to go down to the river and wait around for the fireworks to begin. The fireworks display was terrific. We sat on the grass next to the hotel with surround sound blasting patriotic music and fireworks exploding over our heads showering down bright colors of spark. Fireworks are one of the few things in life that can be enjoyed no matter the time of year. After the fireworks ended we walked back to the cars and proceeded to wait in traffic before making our way back to Dalenes’ house. After the fireworks, Jena and Lance decided to put their kids in the car and make the 3 hour trip back home. Weston and I decided to drive back with them in an effort to catch a plane back to Arizona early in the morning. Lance’s lead foot got us to the airport a little earlier than even I like to be there. It was 3:00 am. Now if you have ever wondered what the airport looks like at 3:00 am let me tell you. It’s nearly empty with only the zamboni like machine driving around washing the floors with its built in squeegee. At 3:00 am, not even the security entrance was open. Weston was dead asleep and so I proceeded to find a comfortable place to lie down. Whoever designed the airport chairs apparently never intended to sleep in them, as the permanent arm rest prevents any such horizontal activity from occurring.

I layed Weston in my lap and propped my feet up on another chair and closed my eyes. I opened them again after what seemed like a couple of hours of sleep, only to find that the clock now read 3:07 am. I knew it was going to be a long wait. Around 4:15, people started to arrive at the airport and slowly a line began to form near one of the ticket counters. At 4:30, a mob of TSA agents began to come down the hall and quickly took their positions and opened the security entrance. I emptied my pockets of all items known to set off the metal detectors and proceeded to walk through security. I found gate A2 and picked a spot on the floor to lay Weston down on. Upon doing so, he opened his eyes, looked up at me and said, “this floor is hard as a rock….and it smells funny too!” So I picked him up and found some chairs without the arm rests and layed him down again. Finally after what seemed like forever, the sun came up, the gate agents came out, and the stand by list was called. Weston and I were getting on the plane and headed home.