5th of July Celebration

We got up early on Saturday to make the 80 mile drive to Ft. Davis in time for the parade. We had just pulled into town and were about to find a place to park when Clara upchucks all over herself. I was driving the car and my mom rode with us, so she was kind enough to reach back and clean her up.

Here we are at the parade. She is way too cool to pose for pictures with her Mommy now.

She's got the "wave for candy" routine down pat. Did not like the group of Harleys one bit. They stopped right in front of us and all revved their engines. I couldn't hear her screaming bloody murder right in front of me. Tanya happened to look over and see sheer terror in her face, her mouth wide open.

As it turns out, we sat on the right side of the road. This firetruck soaked the other side of the street.

We headed over to the square around the courthouse for some greasy food. We had corn dogs, a tater twist and a funnel cake for lunch. Yummy!

There were booths selling crafts and jewelry and whatnot and we cruised through them real quick and headed over to the kiddie area. Clara rode the pony and Bryce tried his luck on the mechanical bull. There was also a re-enactment of a bank robbery, but there were too many people crowded around to see anything. I'm pretty sure Clara's not a fan of gunshots, too.

After that, we headed over to our hotel to check in. We had only been there about four hours at this point and I was under an umbrella for part of that time and sitting under a shade tree for another good chunk but still managed to get a pretty good sunburn on my back. Clara and I took a nap at the hotel and then joined everyone at my Uncle Jerry's and his friend/neighbor Buster's place.

They do a bar-b-que every year and go all out. This was the first time I've been, though. I don't know how many people were there total, but I'd guess 100-150. All of the meat was donated and there was a lot of it. They served sausage, dear, chicken, beef and ribs. The kids ran around all afternoon and Clara fell in the gravel several times. At sundown, the fireworks started and what a show it was. I only got the one picture of Lilly and Clara because I pulled out the video camera instead. I spent most of the time trying to console Clara. She especially didn't like the ones that crackled. She just about chewed a hole in her blanket. The video is pretty funny. Clara and Lilly are in their mom's laps, facing away from the fireworks, but averting their eyes trying to see and Wyatt just slept through the whole show on Bia's shoulder.

At one point, I had the video on Clara and I and all of the sudden I notice it's bright right in front of me and someone screamed. One had misfired and when I turned around, there were fircrackers on the ground not far in front of us. I captured it from a good angle on video. The video shows just the lower half of my face just as I'm letting out some really pathetic screams.

The entire show lasted about an hour! I've never seen that long of a fireworks show and the finale was awesome. Two or three minutes of huge, non-stop ones. I wish I had gotten it on camera. Clara eventually eased up and enjoyed watching the second half of the "wyatt-works." She kept saying "whoa" and naming the colors.

We got up the next morning and had breakfast in the old fashioned soda shop. I figured I'd get the big breakfast and just share 2 of my 3 pancakes with Clara. Well, they didn't mention on the menu that these particular pancakes were for someone the size of a leprechaun. Tim was going to share Linsey's pancakes, too, but as soon as the waitress brought her plate, she informed him that plans had changed.

Some of us went to church in Ft. Davis, while others (who shall remain nameless), went on back home. Us church-goers came home right after church. I spent the afternoon packing up to head home the next morning. Clara came into the room where I was packing and Tanya was on the computer, and she had throw up all down her dress and in her hand. I think she managed to catch it all. I was proud. Aunt Tanya wasn't as much proud as she was comepletely grossed out.

We left Pecos at 5:30 am. Clara didn't do quite as well on the drive home as she did the drive to Pecos. She was fairly whiney most of the way. It was a nice drive though. It was cloudy and overcast with light rain showers all the way to San Antonio. Usually that stretch is the worst part of the trip because of the blazing sun in your eyes, but I didn't even have to pull out my sunglasses.