A Day In The Life Of The Sandages: 4th of July Weekend

WARNING: THIS POST IS INCREDIBLY LONG...AND FULL OF PICTURES...ENJOY!

OK, so it's almost a month late. But we had such fun I couldn't NOT blog about it. Delmar was asked by someone at church to be on a pyrotechnics crew this year. The guys all went down to the St. Louis area Wed. morning and worked their butts off. Emily and I were asked to go down too. We rarely saw Delmar except when he slinked in bed at night (actually early morning) and for a few minutes before he left at the crack of dawn to start his day. The crews were responsible for setting up the firework displays, running wires and setting off the fireworks themselves. Delmar's first night was in Metropolis on a barge on the river. Those fireworks were set off by a flick of a switch. Here are a couple of pictures that he took that night.

On July 4th the crews were setting up fireworks in and around the Belleville area. That night at the St. Claire Country Club, he set off fireworks himself with a flare. He came in that night and said he had sooo much fun. He was like a kid in a candy store! I'm sure if I could have seen him, he would have been beaming.

So, what did Emily & I do for fun while daddy was working? Thought you'd never ask!

We spent the 3rd at the St. Louis Zoo with the wife and sons of the friend from church that asked Delmar to help. Trena and I went to Jr. High together and our moms when to school together too. Small world. Anyway, here are some pics from the zoo...

This is Timmy, Emily & Connor at the zoo entrance. We had the hardest time all day trying to get all three of them too look at the camera at the same time!

Did I mention my daughter is a ham! She has really gotten into doing the posing thing for pictures lately.

I ran across these flowers and they were just too pretty to pass up.

Not sure who has the bigger mouth here...

All of the kids enjoyed brushing the goats. Not sure how the goats felt about it. This one seems to be trying to get away but Emily was very persistent!

So, for the 4th, Trena, I and the kids spent the day just hangin' until it was fireworks time. We started out at a little park area at Horseshoe Lake. The kids played and we had a great view of the St. Louis skyline that I'm sure most people around here haven't seen before.

During the play time at the park, I took time to play with some of the settings on my new camera.
The St. Louis skyline.

This is one CRAZY mushroom! Looks like a burnt carrot coming out of the grass.

After playing, we went back to the hotel to swim a bit and get rested up for the big night. Emily loved the pool and the hot tub was just close enough for mommy!
This fish tank was in the hotel lobby. All three kids like watching the fish.