We met up with our friends from the parade once again later in the evening to enjoy the fireworks. Although the show was decent, the time we had to sit around protecting the location for our seats, when combined with the disaster that was the parking lot after the show, was just about enough to drive me nuts.

    Back to the beginning... we arrived at our spot, located on Silver Lake Parkway straight out from the Dunham's store. We had a nice spot, with about 20 folding chairs spread out to mark our territory. The kids passed the time playing various games of catch (football, baseball, and whatnot). They also had a lot of fun with those "Pop-Its" noisemakers. Shortly before the fireworks began we also broke out the sparklers. Trying to maintain sparklers for 11 kids was almost too much for our lone lighter and single candle. We decided it may be a good idea to arrive a little earlier next year, bringing a charcoal grill with us, and spending the time cooking out as many others had done.

    Once the fireworks show had ended it was time to make our way home. We didn't rush to get in the truck because we knew traffic would be bad, but even after we got in it was almost 30 minutes before we made any progress in the parking lot. We had actually parked in a bank parking lot that was attached to a larger parking lot for a strip mall. Most of that thirty minutes was spent still inside the bank parking lot! We finally got to the large lot, only to sit longer... I finally made the decision to hop a curb and make my way to another line. Unfortunately that line wasn't moving any quicker, so a u-turn resulted in a drive to the opposite end of the lot and finally success on the road home. All in all, a 30 minute (give or take) fireworks show took up almost 5 hours of our time... For the most part it was worth it, though. Until next year!

Freedom Festival Fireworks "Pre-Game"
	The gang... Tyler, Samantha, Elizabeth, Hannah, Nick, Tevin, Drew, Erin, Ben, Jayden, and Taren.
	One more shot of the kids. Yes, there are 11 of them. For three families. Crazy, we know.
	A silly shot of the kids.
	One more silly shot.
	Time for sparklers!
	Tyler blowing on his sparkler.
	Tyler waving his sparkler back and forth.
	The adults could barely keep up with the kids and all their sparklers. Unfortunately, that is what happens when all you have is one lighter and one candle...
	Drew with a sparkler.
	Tyler and Samantha with their sparklers.
	Drew waving his sparkler around.
	Tyler having a sparkler fight... OK, not really. The boys are just waving them around, but it looks like a sparkler fight!
	Jayden managed to form a "D" with her sparkler, just like Drew did last year. See for yourself here.
	Sam waving a couple of sparklers around.
	Tyler trying to light one sparkler off another one.
	Jay making a circle.
	Tyler using two sparklers to form two U's.
	Sam with two different sparklers at once.
	A group of kids lighting their sparklers all at once. Or is that some form of alien glow...?
	Sam had this sparkler going at two different places at once.
Please click here for page two of the photos