Saturday, July 7, 2007

4th of July Culture Shock!!!!

Well...we can officially report now that we have had our first real "culture shock" experience in Seattle! Our neighbors had warned us that people get a little crazy here with their fireworks but I guess we understimated how "crazy" they were meaning! We had an incredible day that included a pancake breakfast that morning that the fire dept. does for the city each year, swimming in a kiddie pool, sliding down our neighbors slide-onto the slip and slide (lots of fun!) and then a great BBQ at another neighbors home. Which by the way...a BBQ up here simply means they are grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. Most people up here don't even know what brisket is!!!! Anyway...we finished the BBQ and came back to our house to light the few small fireworks we had bought. The kids had a great time! Then it got dark! Let me just say...I really think I can explain to you now what being in the middle of a war zone sounds like! Most of our neighbors had their own fireworks show and we're not talking bobcats and smoke bombs. We're talking fireworks shows like what most cities and the Texas Rangers put on!!! I have never experienced anything like it in my life. We literally sat on our front porch, looking straight up in the sky watching fire works all around us. We occasionally had to look away though because the pieces of fireworks (what we call "shrapnel") were falling right on us...and we didn't want to get them in our eyes! This continued on until about 1:00 in the morning at which point they died down enough that we could at least sleep through the explosions! We woke the next morning to find hundreds of pieces of firework left-overs in our yard! It was quite a 4th of July experience! Can't wait till next year!!!!

This was at the pancake breakfast. There were hundreds of people from Arlington at the event!



Daddy feeding Taitlyn her breakfast!



The Cole family after breakfast having a little laugh at something!



The girls playing "Simon Says" in the pool!

This was the slip n' slide set up! Becky held the hose on the slide to make it extra fast!




Rylie coming down!



Sam coming down!


At our neighbors house for a "BBQ"


Madison enjoying the party!


Rylie with her first sparkler of the night!

One of our neighbors was helping Madison with hers!



Madison getting very sleepy...but not wanting to admit it!

Rylie and Mommy taking a picture together!



4 comments:

Tina Braswell said...

Wow, that's hilarious! Great pictures!

3fishies said...

that is so cool! I just thought of a sermon for Tim - I had a friend whose son was in 1st grade and she was freaked out because he didn't know the Pledge of Allegiance, but they didn't attend church, so he also didn't know the Lord's Prayer - that made no sense to me. This country was founded on Christian principles-can't have one without the other!
I hope you have a GREAT week with FBCC! We miss you!

FordeFam said...

That's sooo funny!!! We probably don't get 4th of July fireworks shows like that in Texas because it's usually so dry and hot! The weather is weird this year, though, and although last year it was dryer, I remember walking in the rain on the 4th, as well! :) So glad that you are enjoying things up there! We love seeing the pictures of your adventures!!!

Tina Braswell said...

You've been tagged! Visit my blog and read the "Blog Tag" post. :)