An Interesting Fourth!

We had quite the interesting 4th of July this year. As is usual, the City of Wheaton Jaycess had their parade. Wheaton has a LONG parade. It is a testimony to free speech (lots of politicians), free enterprise (lots of businesses) and free candy (no explanation needed!) People go out the day before to put their lawn chairs out to stake their place on the parade route. The parade lasts at least two hours. It makes for a long morning.

After the parade, we were invited to our friends, the Carlson's, for a picnic. It was a warm, upper 80 degree day, and the Carlson's have an in-ground pool in their backyard. The children got some great exercise... and Andrew did some great floating! The children were literally in the water for four hours straight!

After the Carlson's picnic, we came home and got ready to go the fireworks at the fairgrounds. The city puts on about a $35,000 fireworks display, so it's pretty spectacular. The downside was that Steve was with the kids and I got separated from them, so we didn't get to watch it together.


Finally, it was time to come home. The fairgrounds parking lot was pretty packed, and it was close to 10:30 by the time we made it home. Andrew came into the living room and commented that Zuzu had chewed on a battery which was on the living room floor. We threw it away without really looking at it. Then Abby noticed something on the living room ceiling. We assumed, in the darkness, that it was something like a dead moth... until we turned on the light and had a closer look. It was a hole in the ceiling. WHAT? We then fished the "battery" out of the trash can, only to discover it was really a bullet. We contacted the police the next day--after we figured this all out--and the local police department has launched a criminal investigation. We figure someone was shooting a hunting rifle into the air to "celebrate" the fourth. As the law of gravity states, what goes up, most come down. And down it came... through our roof, through out ceiling, and onto our living room table, from which it bounced unto the floor. The police now have the bullet as evidence and for ballistics testing, but here's a photo of the hole in our ceiling. We are all thankful we opted to go to the fireworks!