4th of July fun

Our July 4th celebration began on the evening of July 3rd with a cookout and fireworks supplied by some friends. Before we went, I how to photograph fireworks on the internet and feverishly wrote everything down - ISO, aperture, shutter speed, use a tripod (okay, that part I knew), focus to infinity in manual mode, and on and on. It was too much for my brain to absorb so I opted for the "fireworks" setting on my point and shoot camera. And here are some of the results:I had never done this before and it was amazing to watch the camera. It was on the tripod, close to the ground with the delay timer set. I pressed the shutter and the LCD screen was completely black for a second or two and then the image appeared after the fireworks in the sky were already gone.

Grace has seen fireworks before but I guess we didn't prepare her enough for them this time. We were all out on a dark golf course (we took her out there in her wagon) and she was standing among the adults a safe distance away from where they were being lit. All of a sudden the first shots went off and she came running toward Kyle and me like the bombs were going off in Iraq over her head. She didn't cry and as soon as she was sitting with Kyle I could hear her little voice in the dark saying, "more".

We enjoyed a red, white, and blue breakfast of pancakes with strawberries, bananas, and blueberries this morning before going to the pool for a couple of hours. Grace is different every time she goes to the pool this summer. Today, she mostly wanted to play in the shallow end and experiment with putting her face in the water. (Notice the Sha Na Na "Bowser" hairdo!) That resulted in swallowing a bunch of water and a losing a little bit of her lunch. Eeewww!We have a picnic planned with some friends we met in Guatemala in September 2007 when we were all there for our first visit trip. You can see the photos of the kids here. It will be fun to have 5 of them in the same place again today. And then more fireworks tonight - this time professional ones - if Grace can stay up that late for a 3rd night in a row!