Alison in Vienna: 4th of July!

Well, I'm back in the States for the summer, and after spending a week up at Shiloh I'm finally over jet lag and feeling much more normal. I realized when looking at these 4th of July pictures just how still out of it I was being back less than 2 days, but it was still a blast as usual. I wanted to put some of these on here because this particular 4th of July celebration is definitely at the top of my highlights every year. Lexi and mom came up in time to pick me up from the airport with Granny, and some friends came out to CT from the city to hang out and spend the night before they were off to their own 4th celebrations up in Maine. We did go shopping for all the Austrian wine we could round up for the picnic before the fireworks, we're always in search of good white wine to take to the picnic, so this year we decided to bring a bit of Austria with us :)

The small town in Connecticut where I grew up has one of the best 4th of July celebrations. Every year we try to figure out just how many of these we've all been to...I think my count is about 23 years. Even after we moved to Virginia, we would come back up to New Canaan for the fireworks. The town has an old mansion with a surrounding park that was given to the town after the owner passed away, and on the 4th of July everyone comes out to the lawn surrounding the house for nice picnics before the fireworks begin.

Lexi and I in our classy, somewhat abstract American flag getup.

My good friend from college has just moved up to New Jersey for a fellowship...so he drove up to CT to join us as well! Very fun.

I promise Mom and I aren't really this weird color...serves us right for looking straight into the sun I guess

These kids were serious about their baseball...notice the "umpire" behind the catcher...I'm pretty sure they also had a third base coach.

Getting out our spread

The Johnsons with Scott's homemade focaccia bread...yum yum

The town band (the second oldest still playing town band in the country) plays music on the patio of the house while we wait for the fireworks to begin.