Maizie's First Fourth of July

Last week was the Fourth of July. Not just any Fourth of July, though; it was Maizie's first Fourth of July! It was a Sunday, so we went to church for the first part of the day. I'm the ward clerk, so I usually go to church three hours before it starts so that I can attend the leadership meetings. However, two of the members of the bishopric were out of town, so we didn't have those meetings on the Fourth of July. It was pretty nice to be able to sleep in!

After church, Emily put the drawer liners in Maizie's dresser while Maizie and I slept. I slept for quite a long time, as I usually do on Sundays. Eventually I woke up and Emily and I did a little cleaning. Before too long, Emily's parents arrived. We talked for a little while and then went to the cemetery in Mount Angel to have dinner and watch the fireworks. I know that sounds like a super weird thing to do at a cemetery, but it has a big open field that's away from the gravesites, so it's not weird. Before we got everything all set up for dinner, I took some pictures of Maizie in her stroller. I really like these two:





For dinner we had chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, rolls, pickles, cheese, grapes, cherries, and probably other stuff I'm not thinking of. For dessert we had apple pie! After that, we talked for a while. Eventually Scott and Cody joined us. Scott and I played catch while we were waiting for the fireworks to start. As the time drew nearer, more and more people started to show up in the field. Emily and I think that there were probably about 20 little clusters of people scattered throughout the field, which was more than last year.

At around 10:00, the fireworks started. We had a great view of them, just like last year. They were beautiful, too. Emily and I were wondering how Maizie would respond to them. She actually did extremely well. For the first part, she just sat there, mesmerized. It was really cool to see. I got a video of it, but it's really dark, so I won't post it. After a while, Maizie started fussing, but it was just because she was tired; the fireworks didn't bother her at all.

The fireworks lasted for probably 20 minutes or so. After that, we went home and went to bed. So there you have it, Maizie's first Fourth of July. It went quite well!