FIREWORKS!!!!

Yesterday I told you about our picnic for two on the 4th of July...and that was just the first half of the day. After we got up from our nap, we packed up the car and headed toward Indianapolis for the out-of-town portion of our date. :)

{Ryan had planned a couple of dates for us, and I was starting to feel like a slacker, so I did the planning for this day and had so much fun with it.}

One of our favorite places to eat is Red Robin, so we left home in time to eat dinner at Red Robin. It was the perfect day to go, because apparently everyone ELSE was doing their own cookout at home, so we got right in and served immediately. SWEET JIBLETS!

 {Do you like how the Statue of Liberty is right over my shoulder up there?}

After we ate dinner, we decided to walk around and shop in all the little stores in the shopping center. Great idea, right? Yeah, they all closed early on the 4th. We didn't want to begrudge them their time off, because after all, we sure were enjoying ours!! Butttttttttttt...we were sad to miss out on the chance to shop!!

So we went to Kohl's instead...because Kohl's is always open! :) I bought a swimsuit on clearance. Can I just give y'all a word of advice? Do NOT swimsuit shop after dinner at Red Robin. It's just a dumb, dumb, dumb idea.

But it's a cute suit.

Then we headed to Starbucks, where my mouth was already watering for a white chocolate raspberry latte.

And um, you know, Starbucks was closed.

I wasn't as gracious about that as I had been about the shopping.

McDonald's came through with a caramel mocha...but I sorely missed my raspberry.....

So anyway. We have a couple of towns right around us that have fireworks displays, but for our first 4th of July, I wanted to go out of town for something different, sooooooooo I did some online research and found that Cicero, a little town about 45 minutes from our house, has fireworks over a lake. Oh yes PLEASE.

So we packed our old fashioned, not-in-a-bag lawn chairs, crammed a bag with bug spray, blankets, activities, and jackets, and trekked through downtown Cicero {very tiny town, so it wasn't much of a trek} and scoped out a little spot on a bridge overlooking the lake.

 There had been a threat of rain, so we were SO grateful it held off and that the temps were fairly cool - but oh MAN - the humidity! And I'm sure sitting on top of a LAKE did not help that. My hair grew like a Chia pet throughout the night. My apologies.

We had a couple of hours to kill between staking out our spot and the start of the fireworks, so we worked on updating our bucket list while we sat there.

 And, in fact, crossed another thing OFF our bucket list...going to the fireworks!!!!

 Chi-chi-chi-chia!!!

 Right before the fireworks began, the sky became very pretty! {It had been one step away from rain most of the time we sat there.} All those boats out there on the water were there for the show.

 And then, Ryan entered fireworks heaven...this barge showed up. The barge from which the fireworks were launched. And yes, we had a front row seat to the thing.

 And the show began!!!

 So pretty. I bet I took over 100 photos of fireworks. I bet you're also glad I picked just a sampling for YOU!

 I sat there the entire night with a huge smile on my face...not just because of how redemptive the day was, but because you can't sit through something as grand as fireworks without being moved to smile!!

 Spectacular - for over 30 minutes!

 They even did some that rested on the water. THAT was cool.

 I loved the reflection of the fireworks in the water!

 Ryan loved the way it was exploding. {LOL!!!}

We made a great choice with these fireworks, and it was the perfect conclusion to our first 4th of July festivities! We put me and my hair in the car after it ended and headed home!!