4th of July, 2014 - Chillin' at the Casa

Our 4th of July weekend plans changed drastically when our friends Justin and Wendy had to cancel their visit to the Twin Cities. As it turns out, a nasty virus swept through the Ainslie house at the time the visit was supposed to take place (wiping Karen and Owen out for many days straight) so maybe it was all for the best.

Regardless, when the 4th arrived, we were in low-key recovery mode. Karen and Owen were better but not 100% so we skipped the parade and carnival (O stayed in his pajamas almost all day). Instead of going anywhere, we took advantage of the fact that I had set up the back yard for hosting. I had sprayed the thick bug infested foliage of our yard with both a garlic and a chemical bug repellent, I had our fire brazier out burning wood from the yard (along with last year's stump wood, I had cut some large, dead, overhanging-the-house-branches from the oak on the side of the house the previous day), and had our tikki torches and bug repellent candles and smoke sticks going. Add the smoke from a few sparklers, spinners, and firework spark fountains and the yard is bug free! Finally.

Later that night, I took Owen for his first ever "big" fireworks display. Well, sort of. We went to the highest local hill (where we met O's friend Collin, as well as Collin's dad and his aunts) and took in the distant (but still very impressive) Apple Valley fireworks. We had great seats (and there were only a dozen other people up there with us). Definitely a town that does 'em up right.Owen was psyched. We got bit up by mosquitoes before it was all said and done but he didn't seem to care.

All of these pics are of us enjoying our low key 4th in the backyard.