4th of July

We split our 4th of July festivities into two parts this year. We first went to Lake Ridinger, where my grandpa has a cottage. We watched the fireworks from Yogi Bear campground from a boat on the lake, caught turtles, rode in the canoe, and watched our own fireworks on Sunday night. The favorites were the parachutes, which we shot out over the water and the kids tried to catch them before they sank. That, of course, was after the first one got stuck in a tree and we had to make another trip to the fireworks stand to get some more!
On Monday we drove up to Chicago and tried, for the second year in a row, to watch the fireworks there. Last year we got stuck in traffic and never made it. This year we decided to watch them from the shoreline to the north. Mike and I were cuddled up on a rock by the water with people all around us, but when the first firework went off, we quickly realized there were some large trees in the way. so we moved up a bit, but didn't think we'd have a chance of getting around the two building that were still 3 miles away. We got to see the tallest ones anyway...