I love this time of year. I’m thankful to be living in the good ole USA. I’ve traveled to our neighbors to the North and South and I’ve been across the pond. While the countries I’ve visited are great places, I always can’t wait to get back home. The 4th of July is a chance to reflect on this great Nation and to show a little patriotism. What makes it even better is that my oldest son’s birthday is on the 3rd. Every year we get to celebrate two birthdays in one celebration.
Christmas and birthdays are our favorite celebrations. If the birthday does not fall on the weekend, we will pick the closest weekend and celebrate it all weekend long. That is exactly what we did for my son’s 18th birthday. The pictures in this post document some of the main events.
We normally don’t do balloons, but my wife wanted these for his 18th birthday.
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
The balloons below were supposed to be 3 separate batches. My wife told me about the adventure she had trying to get these in the car. She was having so much trouble that some nice people nearby came to her rescue and assisted her in taming the balloons. We tried to untangled them once she made it home, but gave up.
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
One of my most anticipated events of the day, is the cake and ice cream. This cake was very good and it went very fast.
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
I’m sure the gift giving portion of the day is my son’s favorite.
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
We decided that we would shoot fireworks on the 3rd so we did not have to worry about getting up early for work the next day. We literally had a BLAST! After fireworks, I set up the telescopes to show our guest a few heavenly bodies. The conditions were not ideal for star gazing as the sky was a little hazy, but even with the haze, Saturn did not disappoint.
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
A way to a man’s heart is definitely through his stomach. We all love to celebrate just about anything with food. My son chose the Rain Forest Cafe for lunch the next day. We’ve been taking the kids here since they were little.
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
Our booth had a good view of the night sky above. Thanks to my Sigma 30mm f1.4 shot wide open, I was able to hand hold a couple of shots of the sky. I told my wife I need to buy a gorillapod for situations like this.
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
This post would not be complete without a picture of the birthday boy. My two sons are totally opposite. My youngest is in to sports and loves math. My oldest is an academic and loves to read. He carries at least two books everywhere he goes. I love this about him. He has read more books at the age of 18 than I have read my entire life.
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
Olympus E520 / Sigma 30mm f1.4
We had a wonderful weekend. I hope those reading this post also had a great Fourth of July weekend and I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Thanks for reading!
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