Day 9 - Sun July 4th

Nothing like spending the 4th of JueLy with friends you love! We were abundantly blessed to wake up casually, drive by our first home in Montgomery and then head off to the parish we called home here in Montgomery. I was seeing things a little fuzzy, since I tore my contact lens in the morning cleaning it. I would have had a spare, but forgot my toiletries bag in which I had it stored. No place was open today to get a replacement...so my reality was like a bad set of 3D glasses today.

Mass was great a filled with familiar faces. Same parish priest and deacon as when we lived here. Got to see Deacon Gene Wadas who baptized Andrew and meet up with a few other familar faces.

We met up with our former neighbors, Dan and Martha Pace at the Burger King with a playplace - albeit we ended up at different locations. Thanks to cell phones we were able to work it out. Once we got it straight we spent close to 3hrs visiting and catching up. Glad they have free refills on drinks down here! Then we went back to their house and see (from the outside) our former home. Chowed down on a HUGE watermellon and watched the kids push some toy vehicles around. Sad saying goodbye again, but glad we had time to reconnect.

Everyone

was feeling tired, so we returned to the hotel for a brief nap. We gathered our stuff and headed out to purchase some fireworks to shoot of at Mike Kornosky's place out of town where it is "legal" to do so. We ate a terriffic home cooked meal and even had some excellent gumbo! Then, following supper, we started cracking off the fireworks. Once we had all our stuff put together - there was enough to launch for 3hrs straight! The kids were in/out of excitement and boredom. Some of the sets were extremely professional looking and went up hundreds of feet with multiple spreads! I was having a great time with the simple things: firecrackers and bottle rockets. The kids loved them too. By the time we were done my thumb was numb and covered in black as I used a Bic lighter all night. Had to come back to the hotel to shower as I was completely covered in ash from the fireworks.

A very memorable night had by all and the kids will never forget it! Thank you Lord for another blessed day.

Planning to catch up with 2 set of friends tomorrow and see the small but diverse Montgomery Zoo.