Fourth of July 2018

Carrie, Shane, and I went to see Incredibles 2 for the 4th of July! We bought our tickets early to avoid any online booking charges. We were all excited to see the movie.

I wonder if Shane is going to remember pre-showtime as a "bear daddy" moment.

We had over forty-five minutes until the show started. It felt like a 100 degrees outside and my black Volvo could have doubled as a sauna. Therefore, we wanted to do something to pass the time. There was a craft store on the other end of the parking lot, so we drove over and Carrie popped out.

Shane whined that he didn't want to get out of the car and that he didn't want to go in a store. He wanted to go to the movie now. I offered him two choices: Sit in the car and bake with me or go in the store. Stubborn Shane, didn't want to pick either. He seemed intent to throw a pity party. I told him not choosing was tantamount to telling me to choose. We started to sweat and, with a huff, Shane decided, "Fine! We'll go in!"

We hopped out of the car to follow Carrie and Shane complained again. I felt it was time to make a point. I snatched his shirt and jerked him back to the car. "If you're going to choose to be miserable, we're going to be miserable in the car. Mommy can go in without us." I meant to only grab his shirt and shock him, but I pinched his chest on accident. The surprise and pinch set Shane crying in the parking lot.

Carrie turned around, concerned, but I told her to go on inside. Shane and I had a frank conversation about choosing his attitude. We could not go in to the movie theater 45 minutes early no matter how badly he wanted the movie to start. Shane could choose to be happy. Or he could choose to be miserable. As far as I was concerned, if he was going to choose to be miserable, we were going to stay outside so he didn't ruin anyone else's day. Mommy wanted to walk around the store, because it was better than being bored. She chose to be happy.

Shane decided to try being happy.

It worked. There were Pokemon posters and all sorts of things to look at in A C Moore's.

Shane even found a bubble rocket to spend his allowance on. Go figure, when you try to entertain yourself instead of mope you tend to be entertained.

I don't have any pictures of the theater, because we timed it perfectly. We got to our seats right after the lights dimmed, the commercials stopped, and the real previews began.

Our verdict on Incredibles 2: Incredible! We all loved it!

We went home to rest and relax before further festivities. Carrie made me play cards.

Shane played with our new clearanced art pillow.

The bubble rocket was less of a success. Shane built it himself, put it out, jumped in the air, and nothing. The rocket popped up maybe an inch. There was a piece either lost or missing. It was funny for all the lead-up and excitement to suddenly fizzle. Good thing we had the receipt!

I took Shane to see the fireworks at McIntyre Park that night. We stopped at Covenant Elementary School to avoid crowds.

We weren't the only ones. We showed up a little after 7 PM.

Which was way earlier than we needed to (at least I got great parking!).

Shane is super social and didn't want to sit and play cards with me. He eventually started running up to random groups of kids.

He got into a hide and seek game and hid in some bushes for a long while. I was a little worried he'd gone on an impulsive adventure, but was happy to see I wasn't wrong to trust his judgement to stay close.

People continued to show up as the sun lowered. I thought we'd discovered a secret spot, but the numbers proved otherwise.

A test firework shot off around 8:30 PM. The sudden explosion boomed across the sky and made us jolt to attention.

Which was a total tease. They went another 20 minutes or so before shooting any more off! Shane was pointing out fireworks on the horizon and wondering why we weren't over there when it finally started.

Shane and I like fireworks!

Shane started to name all the different fireworks. There were, "Poppers," "Giant Smashes," "Double Thrusts," "Palm Trees," "Sparkling Planets," "Meteor Showers," and "Double Splatters!" "Double-Spreader-Triple-Zapper" may have been my favorite. Shane thought one explosion looked like a Pokeball.

I felt like a rockstar when I timed our exit almost perfectly. We started to walk to our car as the show winded down. We got to see the finale standing outside our car doors. Then we hopped in and zipped out as an absolute mess developed. It took us five minutes to get out of there, but it could have easily been thirty minutes from all the cars. 

I had to laugh a little. The news put out a reminder article that fireworks were illegal within city limits. I don't think the police got the memo. They were everywhere. I had to steer around several local 'shows' in the middle of the street going through our neighborhood. Carrie hates the fireworks, so she was less appreciative. 

Between the movie and the fireworks show everyone made some memories today. Another successful holiday on the books!