Fireworks

**I apologize in advance for the bad pictures. It was raining and dark and I wasn't taking the pictures. I gave Mark a 10 second "tutorial" while I went inside with a very tired baby.**

This was Austin's face as the "fireworks" were about to begin. It was pouring rain so we had all decided against sitting in the park to watch the real thing and headed home to do sparklers.
He watched intently as the first mega sparkler was lit.
That is when this scrunchy face started.
It was plastered to his face for pretty much the rest of the event.
He finally got brave enough to want to try to, "do it myself."
Grandpa volunteered to help him with his first ever sparkler. These were huge sparklers with very long handles to keep little fingers from getting burned.

Notice the face! He wasn't sure what to think. He certainly wasn't up for waving it around. Holding it still required about all the bravery he was able to muster.
Eventually, he got a little more comfortable but the face remained.
The closer the sparks got to his hand, the less he liked it. I honestly think he just wanted it to be over. He definitely didn't beg to do another one when he was done. Good thing, because only the original sparklers were left, and I was not about to let my baby burn himself with one of those things.
Uncle Jon had a few other fun little fireworks that he set off. This is how Austin felt about those.

They were piercingly loud!

On the way home we spotted some fireworks that were taking place despite the pouring rain. We pulled over in a parking lot and let Austin observe his first fireworks (it rained last year too). Mark rolled down the windows and turned off the car so that he could hear them. Initially, he was only paying attention to the sight of them and was very excited. Then a few loud and large ones went off and he said, "No! Scary!" Mark rolled up the windows. They were pretty far in the distance and were much more muted than what he would have experienced at the park. It was probably best that it rained, because I am pretty sure he would have cried from the noise. Mia would have most likely lost her little mind!

All in all, it was a great day spent with family, and enough entertainment to have him talking about fireworks almost constantly.

Hope yours was really great as well!