A Plan B 4th

Ryan and I have a tradition for our Fourth of July festivities...pretty much the very same thing every single year since we've been married. This year we had to switch it up, which challenged my tradition-loving, Type-A tendencies to the absolute max. It all turned out just fine, but I will admit to experiencing some anxiety over the entire thought of it. (Flexibility is not always my gift. It's never my gift when it comes to holidays.)

Ryan's work day went much longer than he anticipated it would, so when we had our lunch break, I knew we needed to make a plan B. We still haven't caught up on our rest from the busy weekend of programs at church, and he's in the middle of working two weekends in a row, so we needed something that wouldn't make us rush, rush, rush to get everywhere.

So rather than driving out of town to have Red Robin for dinner, we stayed in town and went to Chili's! (I still experienced endless broccoli. LOL!) We have noticed that it's usually quite peaceful to go out to eat on the 4th because most people are apparently cooking out, so restaurants are not so packed. And Chili's was no exception...except they put everyone in the same section of the restaurant, so we were packed in there. Our poor waitress was running around from table to table, but she was incredible and took care of all of us quite well, I thought!

(My mom thought that was a baked potato on my plate with the broccoli. It's actually a sirloin, but it does have butter on top. That must be a fancier-than-I-know-about kind of thing. But it does make it look like a baked potato!)

After dinner, we went next door to Starbucks to get coffee. This was a special treat for us because normally the Starbucks around the area where we go for fireworks close at 5 p.m. so we have to skip evening coffee. (GULP!) This one stayed open until 8, so we got our coffee to go! Thank you, Starbucks!

Since we couldn't go to our normal spot this year, we went to fireworks back in our hometown of Greentown.

They do the fireworks out at the county fairgrounds and next week is fair week. Apparently the Ferris Wheel has already been delivered. LOL! One nice thing about going to this location is that they have actual bathrooms (because of the fairgrounds) instead of portapotties. So I could freely hydrate! :)

Speaking of hydrating, we walked to the Hydration Station for evening coffee, round #2. I love that little place.

I'm pretty sure we were the only people getting hot beverages on a billion degree/billion percent humidity day. Everyone else had ice cream!

Obligatory shot with the hometown water tower:

We went and settled in to wait for the festivities to start. I told Ryan we must have lived away for too long. I didn't recognize anyone. But it was a pretty evening (that started to cool down so nicely the longer we were there).

We listened to some guy propose over the loudspeaker, we enjoyed some patriotic music, and we semi-enjoyed all the contraband fireworks people brought in with them to set off while they waited. (I'm not really sure why people think they can sneak in fireworks. There's really not anything about them that can be considered subtle.) Everyone got in trouble (via the loudspeaker) for that after someone wound up with property damage. And then we all got in trouble again because no one paid attention to the first warning.

I know - all fireworks look the same, but I will share a few of my faves!

A little bit of fairground flavor:

And me being a total toddler:

I won't lie: getting out was a nightmare and for a while, I thought it might be THE END for us. (We actually had to get out of our car once to see if we'd been hit. We had not.) But we made it home in one piece and not in the scratch and dent section. WHEW.