The 4th of July!

The 4th of July was a lot of fun this year. Aaron and I have been a thing since we were in the 8th grade, which would put our relationship at out 7 years now. As we were enjoying the fireworks on the night of the 4th we realized that this was the first 4th of July that we have EVER spent together. CRAZY! Some how over the years we managed to either be broken up or apart each year on the 4th. So this was kinda monumental for both of us.
But anyway, the day started out kinda slow. Aaron left to start working for the day (Yes, they even work on Holidays) and I headed out to see a parade with some of the other APX wives. Celeste, Kynzie, Natasha, Stacy, and myself drove out to a little town nearby called Norristown. The parade was hilarious! I dont know if the parades in Utah are out of the ordinary- but in comparison to this one they are amazing! haha! The parade consisted of a septa bus (which is the bus tranportation here), the city fire department, a street sweeper, two clowns, and a few random cars with local figures. haha! None the less, we had a good time! It was almost better just because it was so bad. Natasha and I showed our patriotism with some american flags.
After that I had to work in the office until the guys finished selling. Since they didnt have a set time that they were going to be getting off, I was worried that Aarons and my 4th was going to consist of no fireworks or festivities :( Luckily they were able to be home by 8 and Aaron, myself, and our friends Ashley and Colt headed out to the city where we wanted to see the fireworks at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
The Traffic was insane and the parking was even worse. We figured that we would be better off finding a little park with a view and watching from there than walking a long long distance to the museum, and thats just what we did. The park was located in the middle of a kinda ghetto neighborhood on a hill on the opposite side of the railroad from the museum. From there we had an awesome view of the city and of the museum. The crowd there was colorful to say the leaste! Just sitting 20 feet from us on one side were a circle of college kids hanging out getting drunk and passing around their doobies along with smoking their Hooka pipes. Then on the other side was a number of different families of many ethnicities. There were a few scattered couples laying on their blankets and we could hear a group of black women singing the national anthem. There were random pops and explosions of fireworks every now and then all around us.
While we waited for the real fireworks to start it wasnt very hard to find some entertainment- while we were people watching, someone who had been drinking a little too much had lit a fire work accross the street from us just around 100 yards from where we were sitting and had started a seemingly small fire. But in a matter of seconds the fire caught the surounding dry grass and trees. haha! It actually grew into a large fire extremely fast and the crowd started growing around it. Within minutes the fire department was there and took care of it before it became a full blown hasard. haha! It was actually pretty funny and made the night quite memorable. When were weren't people watching we played 20 questions and had some fun conversations. Good times!
When the firewroks finally started it was around 10:45 and we were all exhausted. But we stayed and enjoyed the loud pops and beautiful colors of the show and remembered how grateful we are to live in such a wonderful place where we can be free. Being surrounded by all of those "colorful" people from all different races just confirmed that this country belongs to everyone and thats what makes it so beautiful. The end :)