Saturday morning, as we were cleaning the house so we’d be able to go to the fireworks that evening, Xander asked, “Mom, is it Independence Day?” We could pretend it was since fireworks were quite obviously missing from our 4th of July celebration last year. I had never really thought of it, but it made sense that you don’t do a fireworks show when it’s light all night long.
To make up for it, I guess, our town hosts an annual Festival of Lights on the weekend of the HS basketball tournament, with ice sculpting,
a polar bear plunge, and fireworks at 7:00pm. We just parked our car facing the town park where they were launching the fireworks, squished all five of us into the front seat (I love the Beast), whipped out a fresh batch of Puppy Chow, and had a perfect view of the fireworks. My favorite part was listening to Hazel’s response, her darling little voice saying “Wow!” with genuine wonder at all of her favorite fireworks. Priceless. It was actually a really good fireworks show, too; way to go Delta!
On the real Independence Day, we spent the morning unpacking since our moving truck had arrived just the Friday before.
We wanted to do something 4th of Julyish besides wear our patriotic best, so we went to town looking for fun. There was no town celebration like they’d had in previous years (based on the 2009 Delta Junction Visitor's Guide that Aaron picked up on his first trip to Alaska), but we were able to find the town park and played some baseball, which made Xander’s day, at least.
Besides the all-American fun of family baseball, we discovered our first wild strawberry—exciting and tasty.
Then we dropped by the IGA (the only grocery store in town) and Aaron and the kids convinced me to buy some hot dogs (yuck) in another attempt to make the day seem like it was actually the 4th of July. There would be no fireworks, but we could have a fire. Aaron made a fire right in our front yard for roasting the hot dogs—gotta love living in the country. And Elodie chose to wear knickerbockers in honor of our founding fathers, I presume. (Funny how tights under capris change the whole look—it wasn’t quite warm enough for bare legs. Notice Aaron’s long sleeves. Yeah, in July.)
It was a beautiful day and we had a great time together, with just our fun little family. And it almost felt like Independence Day. Minus the critical component of fireworks. Better late than never. Happy 11th of February, everybody!
2 comments:
That's funny that there's no real celebration there for the fourth of July. I've always thought of Alaska as a super conservative state, but I suppose with the strange daylight hours, it's a little hard to celebrate "traditionally." That's awesome that you can have bonfires right there in your front yard. It's beautiful- those aspens and grassy meadows!
Somehow I missed this post before, so I'm catching up. I cracked up when I read about elodie's knicker bockers! You are too funny. With the tights, it really does say, "John Adams, or George Washington."
I love how many trees you have near you! Thank goodness some plant life is hearty enough to survive that extreme weather. I suppose Heavenly Father made sure of that. :)
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