Happy Independence Day!

Ah, the Fourth of July.  My favorite holiday.  Seriously.  I love this holiday.  I love the summer.  I love the heat.  I love fireworks.  I love parades.  I love crowds of people.  I love family gatherings.  I love funnel cakes, glow necklaces, snap pops, sparklers, air shows, patriotic songs, American flags. I love the fourth of July.  So many fun memories as kids and as adults at the fair with my family.  The best.

Being away from St. Louis during this holiday is tough.  For one main reason.  The parade downtown.  It's a family tradition.  Seeing pictures of my extended family there this morning hurts.  In a good way.  It's so fun to see everyone there eating bagels and fruit, drinking screwdrivers and bloody marys, coffee from starbucks, screaming spin it! spin it!, aunt Vick passing out hats, Wil throwing snap pops at the parade, confetti EVERY.WHERE. Kids crying because they didn't get a baseball.  Aunt Sara yelling at Wil and T to stop having the Men in Black spray them with water guns right in front of her!  ;)  So fun.

Anywho, we are off to a new celebration tonight at the bay.

Last night, we went to Aloha Tower Marketplace to watch the fireworks over Honolulu Harbor.  It was perfect.  We had a table, right on the harbor at Gordon Biersch.  We had a great dinner.  Some great Hawaiian music and dance.

And watched the fireworks launch right in front of us over the harbor, right from our table.  Afterwards we walked back to our car and were back on the highway within minutes of the fireworks ending.  Quite the different experience from the fair in STL.  

Now for the pictures....

The boys waiting for dinner.

 Mom and Dad waiting for the sun to set!

 Jonah, looking cool!

 Tiki asleep in the stroller.  Oh yeah, we're those people now.

 Finally, the sun is behind the clouds....almost behind the mountains.

 Now waiting by candlelight.

 Here comes the barge....

 and fireworks!!!!

And, oh yes, I cried during the fireworks.  Missing my family but enjoying the excitement of my boys.  Jonah was so enthralled by the fireworks.  I think his favorite were the ones with no display, just the loud BOOM!  He kept saying, "Boooooom.  Boooooom."  So cute.

Caleb said his favorite were the ones over his head where he had to break his neck back all the way to see them!  Ouch.

(We were so close that many of the larger fireworks were right on top of us!)