We spent the fourth of July in Idaho – something that has become a tradition over the past five years. It beats the heat of summer in Arizona. Last summer we were up in Rexburg for our family reunion the same exact week and we had lofty goals of going to the Melaleuca firework show in Idaho Falls. As it drew closer, we all agreed we didn’t want to fight the crowds and try to find parking – so we changed plans.
This year the Melaleuca firework show went back on our schedule and I kept expecting it to get knocked off the list like the previous year. But this year the idea stuck and we found ourselves driving down to Idaho Falls at 5pm to find a place to watch the fireworks. This Freedom Festival is quite the production and we were surprised at all they had to offer as people waited for the big show. The inflatables area was entertaining. It’s fun to watch a large log knock your child off a pedestal or get knocked off a bull. We watched it time and time again and it never failed to make me laugh.
My brother was drawn to the Archery contests and we enjoyed watching him win. He won more than once – he could’ve stayed there all night and cashed in. I guess it’s a skill set not held by many!
As they sun started to fade on the horizon, we ate our picnic dinner and celebrated my nieces birthday with cake. The kids played football, corn hole and card games while the other’s played spike ball.
Evidently, the kids didn’t get enough sparklers the night before and we used the dusk hour to light up the night. I’m now beginning to wonder if there’s ever enough sparklers. I think not. Luckily we had the longer sparklers this night – less lighting more sparkling.
The Melaleuca fireworks show was…amazing, just as everyone told us it would be. By this point it was 10 o’clock, Briggs had fallen asleep in the stroller and was sporting noise cancelling headphones. And I sat with a permanent grin on my face. So many fireworks. So many booms. It was just as I had hoped. The 31 minutes went by way too fast. I could’ve sat for another hour enjoying that moment. But it ended with the largest bang. And as expected there was the biggest rush to the parking lot. We looked at each other and realized we were going to be sitting in a parking lot for a while, or we could sit where we were just a little longer. So we sat. The kids watched movies, we played night games (with glow in the dark balls and glow in the dark necklaces) and waited for the crowd to clear. The kids were rockstars. Over two hours after the show ended we finally got in our cars and made it home after 1am. Even with my 5 young children, who refuse to sleep-in regardless of what time they go to bed…it was totally worth it.
