Monday, July 4, 2011

The Celebration Continues!

Sunday......
Church, picnic in the woods, short visit with Mother Fahnestock, more food prep, picnic and the best Fireworks show ever!

The first Sunday of the month is always Fellowship Sunday with our church family. But the first Sunday of July is Picnic in the Woods Sunday. We love it! We had a storm and rain during the night and it looked like it could rain again in the morning but it didn't. The weather was a typical July day....Hot and Sticky! We were able to enjoy eating outdoors and the kids and adults enjoyed games. We were treated to soft ice cream too, thanks to the Goods who brought their wonderful Ice Cream maker!



The picnic area is just lovely!

Next we took Ellen to Grandma Fahnestock and Aunt Nancy. Ellen does not like the noise of the celebration at Longs Park. She prefers to stay with Nancy. We visited a bit then it was back home where I had some food prep, packing up the food, Hubs packed all our stuff into the van and we were off.

We have been going to Longs Park for the Patriotic concert and fireworks show for more than 20 years. We think the show is the best anyone could ever see. I think our opinion was confirmed when a gentleman chatted with us as we were waiting to leave the park after the show.....He had just came from California, came to the show with his parents.  He has seen shows at Disneyland and listed several other big well known places, and he thought this was the best he has ever seen! Right here in Lancaster......awesome!

I always provide lots of food. I never know how many people I will be feeding. We were missing members of my family this year- Jean and Dick stayed home in State College  and Mary Ellen decided not to come. Not to worry, we had a big group anyway!

Hubby, Corey (our son), Kim (our oldest daughter)

Kim with Paityn (daughter of Marcy)

Red, White and Blue.....
of course!

Ralph (Christy's brother) and one of the owners of Modern Eyes
Katie, soon to be wife of Ralph
Ralph's son Gavin
And a cousin of Gavin

Chad, another owner of Modern Eyes
and his girlfriend

Aidan dancing!
To his right is Chris, another employee of Modern Eyes

Andrew (son of Kim), Paityn and her Daddy, Scott.
Marcy did not come. It was too hot for a  prego Mommy!
Also, Greta (daughter) and Lynn (her fiance)
And beyond them, you can see the Dad of Greta's friend Sarah.
Sarah, her Dad, sister and her boyfriend joined us.

Corey and Christy (wife of Corey)
They were discussing her upcoming birthday.....
Corey was teasing her about going to see the Transformer movie!
Such a romantic guy ;o)

A game of Duck, Duck, Goose!

Watch Christy go!

Pretty sky!
And people everywhere!
30,000 according to the newspaper

The amphitheater as it got dark
The concert by the 257th Army Band was wonderful, as usual.

Everyone LOVES the firing of the cannons
during the '1812 Overture"

All I got a picture of was smoke...
I wasn't very good at anticipating the flash from the cannons!

And then, it was time for the best Fireworks show anywhere =)


Colorful.......

Bright.....

Wild, Loud and Crazy!

God Bless this great Country!

5 comments:

From the Kitchen said...

This looks to be a perfect celebration! Happy 4th.

Best,
Bonnie

Jean said...

Oh, I just hate that we missed it. Hopefully the ones we'll see in State College this evening will be good. They say they're synchronized to music, if you tune your radio to a certain frequency. We shall see. They're even skydiving a huge American Flag in, but to get close enough to see everything it would cost us $65!!! Not quite free like Long's Park!

Anonymous said...

Sounds/looks like a fabulous time! Enjoy today too!

Theresa said...

GREAT pictures of ALL of the fun times! I love seeing the crowd pictures but the fireworks pics are wonderful! We partied today and I am too tired to get out tonight for the fireworks, I will watch them on TV! It isn't as good as seeing them in person though!

Thanks for sharing your fun day and night with me! BIG HUGS!

GLENDA CHILDERS said...

Doris, You work so hard to provide the most lovely times for your beautiful family. While I don't live near mine, I love being from a big family.

We had a lovely missionary family for dinner on the fourth and then girls later on in the evening.

Fondly,
Glenda