I hope my memory holds out long enough to be able to remember this past 4th of July weekend for quite some time. First...the weekend marked the
20th anniversary from the date that my wife and I started dating (now going on our 18th year of marriage). We started dating at a large Church event that I had traveled to attend in a small town in Oklahoma. The event is one of two large Church gatherings that take place over the July 4th holiday every year within the Church that my wife and I are a part of. This year...we attended the one in Springfield MO where we both had a chance to see and visit with friends and family that we had not seen in over 12 years. A lot of is look different but the relationships and friendships are still there.
Our weekend plans culminated with the fireworks party at our home. I mentioned in an earlier post that my wife loves to plan and throw parties. She has a gift at making everything just right and, combined with my gift of gab, we make for some pretty fun hosts. We had originally planned on about 30-40 guests. We had told everyone who was invited that they could also invite whoever they wanted which a lot of folks did
. We were thrilled at the end of the night when we sat down to recap the party (wife and I) and we counted at least 76 people that came for food and fun. This was the largest gathering we had ever hosted and we had such a good time.
I also mentioned the other day that I was raised in California which meant we had limited access to "fireworks" depending on which county you lived in etc. The "fireworks" that you were allowed to have were only those that stayed on the ground and did not blow up which meant they were fairly boring outside the pretty colors you might see spewing in the form of a fountain
. Well...welcome to Missouri where you can pretty much have any kind of firework that you can think and make for some loud
"BOOMS!" 
A friend of ours in attendance is an excellent photographer and she was able to capture some scenes from our party including some of the types of fireworks that we were able to set off.
We are still high on a cloud from our weekend and hope that you all had a great and safe time as well at whatever fun event you were able to attend.
Comments (19)
Great fireworks photos!
Happy Anniversary!
My 4th sucked because I live in the high desert in California and ANY fireworks are illegal.. We're talkin', the cops are patrolling the neighborhoods listening for booms and scoping for sparklers to arrest a person.. It was horrible. Aside from other things.. I think I need to venture out next year to middle America so I can celebrate in true American form...
Those photos are awesome! Next time I were coming to your house. lol. We spent the day swimming with our daughter in the pool, cooking on the grill and taking her to see the fireworks, this time she didnt need the ear muffs, she's growing up so fast. Me and my hubby have only been together a total of 5 years, My daughter was born 9 months and 10 days after we were married. lol. Iam glad you had a good 4th of July.
lots of fun!! you guys put on a great party. thanks for the invite. maybe someday i'll hear the story you told me was behind those fireworks.
i wish i saw fireworks.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!!!!
Thats cool, congrats on 18 years of marriage thats something that you don't hear about very often. Sounds like you had a lovely weekend, the firework photo's are great, I'm not a big fan of fireworks though. I don't celebrate 4th July as I'm British but we did celebrate on the 4th for my uncles birthday.
Congrats on your marriage and a fun filled 4th! We are limited here in CA....but could see about 5 displays of fireworks shot off by various cities from the vantage point on our deck...as well as quite a few illegal quick shots from an adventurous few. Funny thing is the old scout master is a fire chief and the boys have had a few displays out in the desert from the confiscated materials.
those are beautiful fire works, especially the first one. and, what a blessing to have been married for so long =)
"I was raised in California which meant we had limited access to "fireworks" depending on which county you lived in etc."
was that b/c of the potential for wildfires? in IL it's illegal to buy them here ..we can buy sparklers (oh joy. hahaha). though plenty of people just cross over into wisconsin/indiana/iowa or missouri and it's acceptable to use them here apparently..just not buy/sell. =P
@MomGoneMadd - Middle America rocks when it comes to patriotic things like the 4th of July etc. @MICHELECANNON29 - Come on out! We would be glad to have you. :)@Neeka1 - I thought of you when I posted these pics. I hardly post a lot of pics anymore
@ABAHM - Thank you. We used to get a hold of some contraband firecrackers and things when I was a kid in California.
@YouTOme - Yes...it is so dry in California in the Summer that is is illegal to have any sort of firework in most counties. Here in MO we can do what we want and buy pretty much anything. :) We had a great time.
@oeshpdog2 - =)
Those are really cool pics.
and once we lit said contraband and fired them off from our roof when mom&dad weren't home.. remember that? we were afraid that our cranky neighbor lady would call the cops on us. :) ahh, good times. lol
Awww, I so wish we had known. We were eating dinner at Cracker Barrel, IN JOPLIN, while your party was going on! Oh well, how could we have known. :) Maybe next year........ :) It was good seeing you all.
That is wild. I also met my wife this weekend 18 years ago while she was down visiting my aunt (who was her former pastors wife). She had just gone through a divorce and it was strange, I wasnt even looking for someone. I just listened as she talked as we were sitting by the pool. We started to write each other, had our first date over labor day (my work schedule that summer was wild) and we were married Dec 21.91 so this is our 18th year too. Congrats. John
@ProvokingThought - Well...it even gets wilder than that, we were also married on Dec 21, 1991. That is totally wild. Congrats to you and your wife as well.
@oeshpdog2 - amazing ...wonder the odds on that....
@mobecca - Hey! I had such a good time visiting with you guys and seeing you as well. Makes me wish we all lived closer again so we could spend more time together. Shelly is a great picture taker from our congregation. I made sure she brought her camera we would have some decent pictures from the shindig. It was great seeing Greg and Rachel and their kids there too. That Kendra is a hoot!