Happy 4th!

Yesterday was sweltering hot, but we ventured out to visit the Traveling Vietnam Wall, which was in Thornton for the weekend.  We've been to the real one in Washington, D.C., but it was neat to see the traveling one, which gives people who can't or don't travel to D.C. the opportunity to see it.  Just like at the original wall, people had left cards, rubbings, and other momentoes in honor of the fallen soldiers.  

This was an American Flag made out of red, white and blue petunias.  It was pretty neat.
Later on in the evening we went over to Jenn and Nick's house for a barbecue, then we drove across to the Brighton water tower, which is situated up on a hill.  From there, looking west, you can see all of the fireworks shows in the Denver area.  We could see as far south as Lakewood, all the way up the Front Range to Boulder.  It was amazing!  Riley, Charline, and Justin had fun looking for certain colors across the panorama.

After the fireworks, we went back to Jenn and Nick's house to light some fireworks of our own.  Riley was enamored with the sparklers!  The pictures below are kind of fuzzy since it was dark and Riley was doing a lot of moving around, but you can see how intense he was about them!

The one below is cool, the shutter speed on the camera setting was slow, so you can see the trail he made while the camera was taking the picture.
Charline and Justin are one cute couple!  That hat is Char's, but Justin went straight country as soon as he put it on!  

It's funny, having fireworks in the neighborhoods is illegal in Colorado, but no one seems to think that applies.  We were all about safety first, but when we got home to our house we found that our neighborhood was full of pyros!  They've been setting them off for the past couple of weeks, but last night was out of control!  Steve finally went out at about 12:15 and had to ask the people across the street and down the street to give it a rest!  It sounded like mortar fire all around us...ridiculousness!
Happy Independence Day!!