One more...

This might be my favorite. I bumped up the saturation in photoshop to show the richness of the colors. I just love blue and green ones.

I'll also share a little more info about our evening. We left home at 7:00 and stopped by (evil but delicious) Starbuck's for a couple of venti caramel frappuccinos. We were at our viewing spot by 7:30. It was over 90 degrees, but it was pleasant in the shade with a nice breeze. There was plenty of room for the boys to play. MommaLlama packed us home made popsicles, grapes, and cookies to snack on. I played with the camera and we listened to the country music drifting over from the concert playing about a mile down the river. The hot air balloon you see below didn't take off or land, I think it might have just been sitting there as an advertisement for something. But it made for some fun photos, especially as it grew dark and they blasted the fire every so often to keep it upright. Very neat photos. I sat and watched the kids play and thought about the hundreds of dollars worth of new photo equipment I want. A good wide angle lens for one, but at least a remote control so that I could fire the shutter without introducing any camera shake. At least this year I had a real tripod so that it would sit perfectly still for the entire 4-second exposure required to capture the fireworks as shown. The sunlight before the sun sets is nice and golden and great for photos, so I posed the boys for a couple shots, and then set the 12-second timer and the tripod and ran around to get a full family portrait. We arrived early enough to get a great parking spot and a great veiwing spot. It got more crowded, but we were on the top edge of a steep embankment where the river bends, so nobody sitting beside or in front of us could block our, or the camera's, view of the skyline and fireworks. When it got dark, the boys took their seats. Seems like everyone just did blankets when we were kids, but folding chairs are pretty cool. The boys have their own this year. Now, Snookie has always been scared of fireworks because of the noise. But this year he decided to be brave and sit in his own chair, between his brothers. He held their hands, but it was a huge step for him. I guess we need another baby for MommaLlama's lap ;)

All in all, a really lovely evening. I momentarily considered skipping the whole thing. Thursday night was busy, and we were all tired and dreading the heat. But we decided to make some memories and tolerate the weather and crowds, and we were rewarded with very nice weather and thin crowds. We're glad we did it, and we'll definitely do it again every year.