4th of July fun!

Ok, this one isn't from the 4th of July but I wanted to include it. Its a picture of the balloon glow from Ashland Balloonfest. 

We went to a friend's house to enjoy a cookout, fellowship, and some 4th of July fun. She has some property so we were able to set off fireworks which was nice. Had we been in Colorado this year we would not have been able to set off anything.

The impressive array of fireworks. This was actually a little crazy to me because some of these fireworks were big and went pretty high. You can't get stuff like this in CO and the only time I'd see regular people get to shoot those off was in China. And Scott was in co-charge of this display. I was a little nervous....

The crew. Don't worry, we all moved back when it came time for the big ones.

Pretty impressive for guys just setting them off in the backyard!

And then there was a bonfire. This was crazy to me as well. People in Colorado cannot just have fire in their backyards (and our neighbors in the city have fires all the time, for no discernible reason!). It was a huge fire. I don't think I had been around such a large since my days at Camp Como.

The fire was absurdly hot. I am trying to roast a marshmallow on with an extension on my stick because I could not bear to be any closer. I am actually trying to shield my face from the heat too. Everyone laughed at me until...

they tried to roast marshmallows too. It was hot and as close as Scott is in this picture, he did not stay there very long!

We had a really great time with our new friends. Who knows where our next 4th of July will be!?