Clearly we're a little behind on our posting. For the first time, the boys went downtown to watch the big fireworks. Our city hosted two different nights, Thursday (the actual holiday) and Friday. We opted out of Thursday, mostly because of the rain but also because the twins both fell asleep before 10 o'clock that night, which rarely happens. Friday we opted in.
Connor and Daddy went with Grammy and Pappy to watch the music festival that hosted the second night of fireworks. Since we didn't think the twins would think much of the music or the long day, I opted to stay home with them. I wasn't sure if we'd make it downtown to watch the fireworks or not. But Xander kept hearing fireworks go off all around us, and he kept asking to see fireworks. So I packed them up and headed downtown around 9 o'clock. We parked on a side street close the stadium where the festival was being held. It was still raining off and on, so we turned the truck around both to give the boys a dry place to watch and also to be facing the right direction when it was time to leave (ahead of the thousands of people parked at the stadium for the whole event). We had amazing front-row seats to the fireworks show (along with several other families who were doing the same thing we did, just parking outside the stadium to watch).
I forgot to pack the boys noise-canceling headphones. I was a little worried about that. But they did fine. Both held their hands over their ears at times, and Sawyer kind of hid in the bottom of my truck, but he didn't take his eyes off of the show. I think they really enjoyed watching the big fireworks. Both of them still ask to look at the pictures I took (my photos are the screen saver on my laptop, so they see them scrolling through). Xander will say "See fireworks pictures" and both boys will sit down in front of the laptop to revisit the show.
I'm calling it a success, despite the rain and the lack of headphones. Maybe we'll eventually work our way up to doing the whole festival with the rest of the family. One step at a time ...