The 4th of July on the 3rd and the 3rd of July on the 5th

Our family vacation spilled over into the 4th of July holiday weekend. Beaver Creek and Avon coordinate their firework displays Avon does theirs on the 3rd and Beaver Creek does theirs on the 4th. Avon's is known far and wide for being superb, and for the first time in over 25 years of summers in the valley instead of watching them from up at the house (we can see the valley from up there) we braved the crowds and went into town.

What a blast! Of course there was a festival, and of course it was totally packed. Of course I knew the best place to sit and it wasn't nearly as crowded since only locals headed over that way. We plopped down our blanket and chairs and joined in the kid's part of the festival. Getting a little hand up...

We packed a picnic dinner but roasted corn and spiral cut fried potatoes are 'fair' food that's hard for us to resist!

FFM turned out to actually be a pretty patient kiddo. A timely purchase of a light up do-dad helped pass the last hour of twilight while waiting for the show to start. Plus a mom with another three year old sat right next to us and the kiddos played exceptionally well together. We should have exchanged numbers!

What a show! FFM was impressed that we both got all these nifty fireworks for our birthdays (his on the 29th, mine on the 3rd, the actual day of the fireworks).

The 4th was a monsoon of a day yet the fireworks at Beaver Creek went on and we watched them from the nice dry confines of our deck :) On the 5th of July we celebrated my birthday by going out to dinner at a very nice tapas restaurant, Dish. FFM dined like a champ, digging in to everything including the garlic whistles, black truffle oil seasoned popcorn, and blood orange ice cream. We took an entire bag of kid entertainment so our three hour dinner passed in a flash. We are SO proud of our kiddo, even the table next to us commented on his excellent dinner behavior! I'm not sure what's happened since then since he's become intractable, but my birthday dinner was divine.