the 4th of july in our nation's capital

Independence Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I absolutely love fireworks. They are right up there with Ryan and that fabulous Chart House molten chocolate dessert. And I feel very lucky to be a citizen of the U.S.

Since we live right across the Potomac from our nation's capital, we decided to join the insanity that is Washington D.C. on July 4. Ryan's parents Ken and Judi came down to our house from Kensington, Md., where they are serving an LDS mission and his brother Rob (who lives and works in D.C.) met us in the city. We had lunch and wandered through the art galleries. Ethan was the absolute best baby.

After all the art we could stomach (though Rob would have gladly spent the rest of his mortal life in there), we headed over the the National Mall to find a place to watch the concert and fireworks. Only we were turned away. We didn't really know what was going on then, but we found out later (thanks to the 11 p.m. news) that there was a tornado warning in D.C. After we took off (we split back to Pentagon City to watch them at a distance) the Mall was evacuated. Of course, there was no tornado (the weather people here are seriously jumpy. Every time there is like two inches of snow, school is canceled and people stay home from work).
We ended up watching the fireworks on the very end of Arlington Ridge. It is just a block down from our apartment. There were so many people there that the people behind us (and I mean, breathing down our necks) were sitting on each other's laps. All lanes (except the shoulder) of I-395 were stopped to watch the fireworks. I felt bad for the people who were actually trying to get places, because there is no way they could have gotten anywhere on that highway. It was a really fun family time and Ethan was a real trooper for not having any real naps and going to bed so late. The fireworks and weather ended up being beautiful.