yesterday was the fourth of july...independence day!

we had our annual church picnic yesterday day. the temp was a good 104°f. to start it off was the kiddie parade. then food, music, jump house, tug-o-war, and other miscellaneous things. a watermelon eating contest for three different age groups. by the time it was over, i wanted to just get home and take a long nap, but my day wasn't over yet.

i met rin and the kids over at her parent's house and had some dinner. the night wasn't cooling off and was actually getting humid. it reminded me of a nice, cool evening in cuba. the smells and the heat. the heavyness of the air.

darkness finally came and the toys came out. since rin's parents are moving to india and her sister moving to florida, this is the last year of the fourth with the family together. we had a big shebang.

we sent out the first fireworks and used the lighters, but the lighters stunk. i'm not really into using punks, but we had six of 'em, so we lit those and made things easier. we shot continually for about 2 hours, only to break to watch the show over hayden lake. we had a decent view through the trees.

sulfer and smoke were everywhere. during the fireworks, God started showing us up and began a lightning storm. we continued to finish off the light show and cleaned everything up. but God wasn't done with His. lightning was everywhere, shooting across clouds and striking the ground. what a great evening. . .