Fourth of July, 2020

Damian came for a few days around the fourth.  On the 3rd, Lexi, Braeden and Ella had come to help me and Mike with some things at the house.  Lexi and  Braeden left earlier and Ella stayed. She ate dinner with us and was texting her Dad back and forth as he arrived at the Las Vegas Airport.

He stopped at the fireworks stand in the desert near Moapa Valley Paiute Travel Plaza. It's a great place to buy fireworks.  He stood in line outside in the blazing hot sun in 104 degree heat, waiting to buy how many dollars worth of fireworks. He told Ella, via text, that by the time he got in the building there were only SEVEN left in the entire store. She believed him.

However, he did come to town with a very full SUV of glorious fireworks. YOWZA! 

She's excited!

Braeden, Lexi and Ella did a lot of demolition at our house during their week helping!  The took out the bedroom and bathroom walls and the kitchen cabinets, and then came back and did the kitchen wall interior, too!  It is such a great help to Mike because he simply cannot do all that pounding and pounding and pounding. Not to mention all the walking in and out the house, dumping things into a dumpster, etc.

THANKS SO MUCH!!!

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Mike and I just puttered around the house the morning and early afternoon of the 4th. In the afternoon, we went to Kanarraville for dinner and fireworks.  Yummy food!  Years ago, there were many of Pam's nieces and nephews there with their families, but this year there was just Tandy's family and one cousin.  Small and intimate, but plenty of water fun for the kids.

Lexi was helping a little cousin (Nash?) with Mentos and Diet Coke. That kid was a sticky mess!

 These are fun bouncie things. Braeden is on the left, Lexi on the right. He said, "Just run at me. I won't move." So she did. And bounced right off of him. She exclaimed, "OW! I'm too big for these. That hurt!"

Damian's festive Socks for the day. 

Water balloons are a big part of the Christensen 4th Festivities.

Ella, Lexi. Below, Braeden.

 Even Tandy and her cousin, Christi, got in on the act. I think they got buckets of water dumped on them. But it was warm enough.  It wasn't something either Mike nor I cared to do, however.

 Mike, just relaxing, observing, avoiding the water fights.

I guess we're getting old. ha. ("GETTING?!")

The park's play area was full. The crowds mostly stayed apart, practicing Social Distancing. However, there was a DJ and music this year and as the evening wore on, they attracted the youthful set who danced together (closely, but in line dance-styles) to the music. It was cute and coordinated. However, not during a pandemic, folks!  I predict a large sure of 500 new COVID-19 cases around July 18.

That's the top of my head, under  Damian's hand, as I work hard to expose the fuses on all those boxes to help save them some time. I'll get this close BEFORE the show, but sheltered under a tree to avoid all the ashes and fallout DURING the pyrotechnic displays of the evening.

 Lexi and Braeden. They are holding Propane torches.  Yes, they are beyond lighting anything of this scale with matches or "punks." Or even a barbeque grill lighter!  Propane all the way.

 As you can see, it's pretty complicated and intricate with fuses attaching to more fuses, attaching to the big momma one, etc.  It's quite a show. 

Grandmas ;-)

Music AND treats!  We were full from dinner, so chose not to eat the free kettle corn. But I did take a bag of it home.

And here is the pile of trash AFTER. At least some of it.

The fireworks have to start before it's totally dark because they have so many!  In the very blurry photo above, it is a lot darker than my camera would lead you to believe. It was almost dark. As it was, the show was over at just about 11 pm.  The show was spectacular, nobody got burned or injured and no fires were set off (that we are aware of). I felt bad that we forgot to bring our large push brooms to assist in parking lot cleanup. Damian and Clint and crew are among the few who actually clean up the debris from their show.  Everyone else just leaves theirs there.  Boo!

Sunday afternoon, July 5, we went to Kanarraville to have Church with Pam, Tandy, Lexi, Braeden and Ella. It was a long meeting because sometimes grandparents are long-winded. However, Mike shared mission experiences and his testimony with grandkids, which is an important thing to do! It is a rare occasion.

We helped them eat some of the leftovers for dinner, visited a while.  Nice, relaxing day after the 4th. Damian had already headed home that morning.
And of course the obligatory Sunday afternoon nap!

Till next year! Damian really does spoil us.  As Tandy says, "Gotta love Damian’s once a year artistic/creative expression." And we do!