July 4th in Shafferland

So...Ryan had to work on the 4th...for most of the day. I always feel sad for him when he has to work a holiday, and a bit guilty for enjoying my own leisurely days while he is working so hard! Last year I made us this great little picnic lunch and we ate in the pirogi, but he had to work longer this year than last, so I ate leftovers for lunch and when he got home from work in the late afternoon...our festivities began!

We drove back over to Kokomo to get dinner at a place neither of us had tried before. It's this tiny hole-in-the-wall BBQ place called Hawg Heaven.

We ordered 2 sammiches - and intended to split them, so we could try more things.

We decided to get our food to go, since it was such a nice night, and we went around the corner to the park to have dinner!

The panini looking one was my favorite, and both of us fell in love with their homemade potato salad. {And we aren't even really potato salad people.}

After dinner, we went to Starbucks and they were closed. :( So we did the consolation prize of McDonald's coffee. {Not even close to the same when your tummy has its sights set on Starbucks.}

Then...we drove back to Cicero, where we went last year for fireworks, to watch them again over Morse Lake. GORGEOUS night for fireworks.

We staked out a spot on a little hill overlooking the lake and just sat for 2 hours, talking, dreaming, and taking pictures.

There were hot air balloons floating above...

 People lighting those floating lanterns and setting them loose into the heavens...

 A SPECTACULAR sunset.

 And these cannons, which they fired eight times {Ryan said} and scared us out of our blasted MINDS seven of them. We kept trying to pay attention to see when they were going to fire them, but {ahem} we may have gotten lost in conversation and kept missing it!!

The crowd on the hillside:

I know you've all SEEN fireworks, so I won't post all 238029384023842093 pictures I took. But here are a few of my faves. 

 It took a while to get out of town after the show ended...because the whole county was there {ha!} but we got out - and had a quick stop for ice cream on the way home! :)