Fireworks by Smokey (pun intended)

Our next grand adventure was going to the lake house in Kingston, TN for the 4th of July. We headed up there for four days of fun, hillbillies, lots of food, fireworks, and mayflies. The whole clan was there including my grandmother, parents, aunt, her husband, my brother and sister-in-law, and us. Big party with lots of food. LOTS of food.

Granddaddy and Grandmommy bought Babygirl an insane pool-type thing. It had a slide, it squirted, it had moveable parts. Insane! She had a blast with it. We also took the Munchkin out for her first boat ride. The grandparents rented a pontoon for a couple days, which has gates and railing all around. We put a munchkin-sized life jacket on her and away we went. And, she loved it.

The highlight of the trip was firecracker night, which was the 3rd this year (except for some neighbors down the river that thought lighting huge rockets at 2:00 am the night before was a good thing). As it was last year, you gotta love legal firecrackers in hillbilly country. All the rednecks shoot some amazing stuff out over the river. Including us! We all setup our “watchin’ place” by dragging all the deck chairs down by the river. Granddaddy and Uncle Peewee proceeded to light what turned out to be, by comparison a puny stash, out over the river. In between our rockets, we watched an amazing show of booms, and swooshes, and lights directly across the river. Sleepy Babygirl sat on my lap the whole time and flinched and then clapped appropriately. About a half hour later, we realized that it got really light across the river. Then we realized the locals lit something up. Lo and behold, we got to watch half the hillside burn in addition to the awesome fireworks show. I can only imagine that next year’s show will be a disappointment.