Happy 4th of July!

The 4th of July has always been one of Meema's favorite holidays. So growing up, my family celebrated big time. One of the best parts of celebrating with my family is the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration, a.k.a. a massively awesome firework celebration, held in my hometown every year. Yeah, this year they launched over 17,000 aerial fireworks in their 30-minute show. It's awesome. And really, really loud.

That loud factor is why we decided we probably shouldn't go this year. Considering the fact that the sound of paper crinkling or Velcro tearing makes A cry, thirty minutes of earth-shaking booms probably would have caused him to have a nervous breakdown.

But we still had a great holiday here in Utah. We started the holiday off with breakfast and swimming at Grandma's house here in Utah. Baby A LOVES swimming and had a blast. He also loved getting to spend time with Abby.

Then we headed home so that A could take a nice, long nap because he was exhausted! Once he finally woke up, we went out for lunch at Taco Bell {because what's more American than Mexican fast food?!} and bought some little fireworks for A. We tried to pick out ones that would be pretty and as quiet as possible.

We started with ground bloom spinners. And A looked terrified.

Then we tried a fountain that the man in the fireworks tent told us is really mellow. He lied. Baby A loved it at the beginning because it really was just a pretty shower of sparks... but then it suddenly turned into a wild eruption of crackles! We had no idea that was about to happen and A shrieked in a way that I've only experienced during shots. Poor baby!

He also saw sparklers, which he handled better but still seemed pretty unsure. All in all, our suspicions were confirmed that 6-month-olds and fireworks are not a good mix! But with lots of cuddles with mom and dad as well as a little snuggling with Kami the Koala {his favorite toy}, his smile was restored and he was happy again.

But despite his fear of fireworks, we were still able to have a pretty awesome evening while he slept peacefully in his crib. Once he went to bed, we turned up his white noise so that the fireworks outside wouldn't wake him up and then we climbed up the mountain in our backyard to watch fireworks throughout the valley. We live in the perfect place because we got to just be in our backyard where we could hear him on his monitor, and yet still have this amazing view.

I love this holiday! Happy 4th of July!!