E. Street Times: Whiz, Bang, Pop

Yeah I know, this post is getting to be pretty late. But the Fourth of July is a favorite holiday around here, so I can't let it go by without mention.

The 4th usually means three things at this house: fireworks, bike racing, and (drum-roll) Austin's birthday! This year the weather was soooo hot (we're talking triple digits) that it shortened some of our holiday activities, but we still had a lot of fun!

First came the bike races the weekend before the fourth of July, with the Tour of Lawrence. Austin planned on participating in all three days of races, but with temperatures soaring into the triple digits it was just too hot on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was a little cooler - you know, like 97° - so he did race in the downtown criterium, and he did really well! He rode very strongly throughout the whole race. Check out a couple laps of the race in this video. Austin is #167 and he has white arm coolers on.

Next up was the 4th. We had plans to check out some of the festivities going on at the local park, but again, it was crazy hot. We ended up hiding away in the AC most of the day, but we did manage to get out for a while in the afternoon to do some grilling and shoot off a few small fireworks of our own.

Here we are hanging out inside munching on some frozen treats - that's my favorite way to beat the heat. Notice her pose. She had just started thinking it was really cool to lean against the wall like mommy. She loves to do this all the time now, especially when I am leaning against the cabinets in the kitchen. :-)

Wow! Poppers! How fun!

And of course there had to be a tank or two.

After shooting off firecrackers Austin did a little grilling for us.

And shot off a couple M-80s in the process. Oh Boy! Attia thought that was pretty exciting!

Later in the evening Austin and I managed to see some of the city fireworks too. Attia doesn't stay up late enough for us to go down to the riverfront to watch them yet, but luckily our house is close enough that we can see them from our street. That is really nice!

We wrapped up the summer holiday festivities with Austin's 29th birthday. His birthday fell on a Friday this year, so unfortunately he had to work, but we had a yummy Wheatfield's lunch, Austin's favorite chinese for dinner, and Attia was super excited to celebrate with him when he got home!