The last 4th of July post of 2009 :)

With YaYa at the South Shore Frolics fireworks with my sister, I figured it's as good a time as any to finish off our 4th of July recap.

After the ballgame I took everyone to visit my grandma's grave, as it was the 3rd anniversary of her death. On the way we passed the cemetery where my Dad's folks are buried, and since he was in the car and his side of the family usually appears slighted, we stopped to pay our respect there. Both sets of my Dad's grandparents are buried near their children, so we paid a call to their stones as well.

After that it was on to Woods National Cemetary to visit my grandma. Lisa's maternal grandparent's are interned there too, but it was tougher (for me) to find that marker.



Smiley wasn't very careful about observing protocol. While I never stopped chastising him for messing around with other people's stones, I figured none of his great-grandparent's would have minded a bit.



From there we hit Sonic again, since it's only a few minutes from the VA. I'm telling you, that dollar menu rocks.

After they took a nap I rounded the kids up and took them to my parents house for a BBQ.




It was the first time they'd grilled out since they moved, and the first time I had since before we bought our house in late '06.



Believe it or not, it was the first time my Mom had ever ventured out onto her patio.










When we got home from my Mom and Dad's Lisa was just returning home from her trip, and she had a surprise: Fireworks she'd bought in Kansas.

Note: of course, fireworks of any kind are illegal in the city, so these were *pretend* fireworks. Any and all the images you see below are strictly, 100% photoshopped. Honest. ;)











Even my sister got in the act



Lisa had also purchased some bigger (but still small) photoshopped fireworks at a special clearance price.







Afterwards we ate the cake that I had made the night before (and that the kids helped decorate), then headed out to the park for the local fireworks display.



















It really was a heck of a way to spend America's 233rd Birthday!