A Weekend Long Light Show

As is usual here at camp Decker we had an exciting 4th of July weekend. Last night the festivities started at the park in Las Cruces where they host the annual Electric Light Parade. Unfortunately we got about two hours into the evening and it started to downpour. right in the middle of the picnic Las Cruces experienced the heaviest rainfall of the season. After thinking that we could huddle under a tree, one of the kids having a panic attach about the tree getting hit by lighting and Isaac barfing all over Candace we finally decided to retreat to the shelter in the park. The rain did manage to tone down for just long enough to see most of the parade and be able to get back to the car.


This is the only photo of the parade that I managed to get...My big question, who is Jesi?

A hot bath and banana muffins were both very welcome that night!
The actual fourth ended up going off much better thankfully. After work at the yarn shop for the morning we headed out the White Sands Missile Range pool for their bash. Lots of games, water slide and tasty food. Not to mention hilarious staff! The kids swam for about three hours and then on a whim we decided to drive the extra 50 miles to Alamogordo to see the fireworks there. On the way through town the GPS took us on a detour and as I have discovered in life it is sometimes the detours that provide the most interesting experiences. We found a coffee shop who's location could only be described as out of the way. We bought iced tea and positioned ourselves directly above the Alamogordo valley to watch the fireworks.



And so the adventure continues with Isaac deciding that he should touch the sparky part of the sparkler (I do not recommend this myself.) and having about a half and hour of irritation with his decision. But after that setback we ended up finding a very cool couple who hung out with us and gave all sorts of information about the area for my road trip in a week. The fireworks went off right in front of us and the weather was perfect.
I know that North Dakota has some fabulous thunder and lighting storms but I have never seen anything like what we drove through. The lighting seemed to have to beginning or end. It just flashed across the sky and left it's imprint on my retina for several minutes afterwards. In the middle of the storm it just lit up the whole space we were in. It was very UFOish in nature. I almost felt like I was in the middle of a glowing cloud. And after we had gone through it I could see the flashing in my rear view mirror for miles as if it was chasing us. Fabulous!
We came home to find that Xen, Candace's dog had been so frightened of the firecrackers that he had chewed his way out of his kennel and was hiding upstairs. Poor guy.
All in all a pretty exciting few days here.
In all the excitement I noticed that lots of people posted about independence and freedom. I hope that everyone keeps in mind that regardless of your personal feelings on politics or war there are people who put themselves in harms way and work hard every day so that we can speak, write, worship and feel that way that we want. Thanks to all those people who do what is necessary.