My First 4th Of July in Phoenix

As I was shopping for my little fourth of July gathering tomorrow I started thinking about my first year of celebrating the 4th in Phoenix.

It was 1989 and we moved from Tucson to the big city. As silly as it seems it was a culture shock for me even though I was less than 200 miles away from my old stomping grounds. It was a whole new ball game in Phoenix - difficult meeting people, everyone rushing, few mom and pops businesses, not so friendly people, and lots of traffic. Anyway, we decided to take the kids to one of the big 4th celebrations at Wesley Bolin Plaza.

 On our drive home they all needed the bathroom, so needless to say the argument was who would be first to the toilet. My daughter Melissa jumped out of the car as soon as we pulled in the driveway and begin ringing the doorbell - little did we know that signaled the robber inside that we had arrived. My husband opened the door and I noticed his shot gun in the entry way. I asked him why he left his gun laying around like that, and then we heard our bedroom door slam shut ...WELCOME TO PHOENIX!
We all ran out the door together I thought, but after doing a head count my husband was still inside with our intruder, and my eldest daughter Tiffanie was already down the block because she kicks into survival mode in an emergency. (her survival )

Thankfully all ended well with some minor potato clean up, and paint touch up on the kitchen door from my dog going crazy because she was eager to get out to greet our robber. The police laughed at me for locking her up, but I didn't want the fireworks to scare her - lesson learned!

It's such a crazy memory to have, and it's actually pretty comical now when we talk about that night because there's so many funny things that we said and did in our panic mode.
FYI: We're probably not the family to team up with in a dangerous situation.

Happy 4th - make it a safe one!

Peace, Love & Hugs!