4th of July!

This was a total whirlwind of a holiday.  Dr. M returned from his trip on July 1st (his flight the day before was cancelled, so he was a day late).  A little over 24 hours later, Grandma and Grandpa D arrived at the airport.  The following day Dr. M drove back to the airport to pick up a Spanish exchange student who's spending the month of July here to work on math with Dr. M.  The next day was the 4th of July!  As if that weren't enough, we decided to pack the 4th with as many activities as possible...that morning we had a big pancake breakfast at the house and invited Wendy (the Spanish student), we all went to see the matinée of Monster's University (E's fave), to a play-place for lunch, back to the house to prepare the fixings for the BBQ cookout we were hosting just hours later.  We had sparklers, smoke bombs and poppers for the kids to throw while we ate, drank and enjoyed company.  It was a rainy couple days, so the option of camping out on the hill to see the firework display was out of the question.  We did, however, decide (at the last minute) to drive downtown, park the car and wait for the show to begin (we did have to show Wendy the 'true American' 4th experience, after all).  The drizzle cleared momentarily so we could watch the fireworks from the back of the minivan.  It was almost 10pm by the time they were over, the kids were exhausted (so were we) but it was worth it.