The next day we packed back into the car and headed out East. We've been doing a good amount of traveling to the coast but this was our first real move inland. We drove for a little over and hour to Sly Park. Sly Park in the winter is a ski area and in the summer it's a lake that attracts campers.
There's one place in particular that I like to visit in Sly Park. It's a man-made waterfall about a mile from the camping/parking area. The walk isn't strenuous but it's usually long enough to build up a little sweat and that makes the water is pretty welcoming.
And then we made sure to stay long enough to dry off and swim again and dry off again and swim again. Even Reha, who loves to swim and hang out around rocks, finally found a shady spot in the roots of a tree to relax herself. While, of course, still mindfully keeping watch of everyone still in the water.
By the time we drove back (stopping to buy fireworks) we were down to about an hour before dusk. Henry was interested in shooting some baskets but with the broken window the basketball hoop in the backyard is on a hiatus.
The closest hoops we determined were at Woodside Elementary School (the school I went to K-6th grade). At that point no one was really interested in driving. It was hot. And going to be dark relatively soon. Ultimately I decided to go ahead and take Reha to the dog park while the boys shot hoops for a quick 45 minutes or so.
Once at the dog park, in the same lot at the basketball nets at Woodside Elementary, I saw there were actually no dogs. Silly me, most mindful dog owners were keeping their pets in when fireworks were beginning to sound.
The last two years I have celebrated the holiday with Richard and Reha in Oregon. We've sat contently in a car watching the fireworks in the sky and not the hand-lit fireworks on the street. Reha has done okay. But today, being out on the basketball courts she was anxious. We decided to leave before sit got too dark and she flat out ran all the way home.
On the way to purchasing fireworks today, we stopped at a gas station and I purchased them all lighters. There were about 50 designs to chose from and everyone picked their own unique style. Yago then removed the picture and had a plain white plastic lighter. And then Henry left his in his pocket when he went swimming and had to borrow from others.
None of this deterred from the fun on playing with fireworks for over two hours in the street though. As you can see, I have done my duty in turning five Akiukers into pyromaniacs.
After fireworks (again close to midnight), I went to bed while the kids stayed up playing in the outside mini-pool until 3:00AM. I'm not sure when they all actually went to sleep... but I can say that I had to wake Marilyn, Henry, and Alaina up at noon the next day to get them started.
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