4th of July – A Bang or A Fizzle?

Over the week of 4^thof July, my daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons came to town for a visit.  We had all been looking forward to this summer trip, as it would be a chance for all of us to spend some quality time together.  And over the week, I’d say we enjoyed a lot of “bang” but also suffered through a bit of “fizzle.”

In a previous post, Pool Plight, I told the story of my outdoor aquatic challenges over the winter and spring.  Just when I had the pool perfect for my daughter’s visit, a huge thunderstorm roared through our area before she and her family could even get in the pool.  Eight inches of rainwater rushing into the pool nearly turned it into an infinity pool, a glorious site to behold, except when a pool is not designed that way.

By the time I finally got the pump going to pump water out of the pool, the deluge nearly swamped the pool deck.  If you read my previous post, you know the significant time and effort required to get it back right, a challenge I spent wrestling with the entire week.

With the pool out of commission, the cousins focused on fun indoor activities while I commiserated about the pool over a beer with my daughter.

The next day, we got to go to my favorite place to take grandkids, the Children’s Museum of Memphis (CMOM) where we enjoyed indoor crafts…

…a picnic…

…and some fun outdoor activities as well…

…before one last ride on the carousel while I held a very excited spectator for his first ever visit to CMOM.

On the 4^thof July, our plan was to go to our son’s house to walk over for the High Point Terrace 4^thof July parade, the longest running parade in Memphis.  But getting three kids and six adults all at the parade proved too much of a challenge as we arrived just when the crowds were exiting the parade route.

So we settled instead for cooling off from our hot walk in the wading pool at our son’s house.

By the end of the day, our pool had cleared enough that we could swim and the cousins enjoyed their second dip in cool water.

That night the fireworks really began—so to speak.

With most firework displays not starting until 9:00 or 9:30, well past our little ones’ bedtime, our festive participation was limited to hearing pops and bangs from the fireworks being shot off in our neighborhood.  Sometime before midnight, we were awakened by the sounds of our grandson crying.  At first my wife thought the loud fireworks might have scared him and so she rushed upstairs to comfort him.  When she went in his darkened room, she couldn’t find him in the bed.  When she turned on the lights, she discovered that he had fallen off the bed between the bed and the wall and had slid head first under the bed.  All that was visible were his feet, sort of like “Wicked Witch of the West under the house” style.  His parents ran in and his dad had to help my wife lift the bed up so that my daughter could pull him out.  Needless to say, this made for a memorable fourth.

On Thursday, our plan was to have some nice quiet time…

…here my grandson falling asleep watching a movie that I too had fallen asleep watching before.

Then it was off to dinner to make some memories while enjoying some good food and good beer!

Our pool was finally recovered enough by Saturday, that we could host a pool party…

…and a belated birthday celebration!

But sadly, the next day meant the end of our too short visit.

This is the third year in a row that our daughter and her family have been able to come to Memphis for a summertime vacation but invariably we never have enough time to do all the things we want to do.  For this visit, there was definitely more bang than fizzle and so to get more bang in the future, we have already started planning their next trip home which will be even longer!