The Fourth of July: Oklahoma Tried to Melt Us ☀️

We had our big Fourth of July cookout and swim day with the family. When everyone is here, there are 22 of us. Yes… twenty-two humans. That is no longer a small family gathering. That is an event that requires planning, food inventory, and possibly a traffic director. 😂

Dennis had the outside all decorated and ready. We had flags and stars everywhere, sparklers waiting for the kids, and Katie painted a Fourth of July banner. Everything looked festive and patriotic… exactly how the Fourth should look.

Now the weather? That was a different story.

Because it’s Oklahoma, apparently Mother Nature decided we needed to celebrate our freedom by testing our ability to survive.

It was 100 degrees most of the day with absolutely no breeze. None. The trees weren’t moving. The air wasn’t moving. I’m pretty sure even the birds looked around and said, “Nope!”

Even the pool water was warm.

And when you’re the one running around making sure everyone has food, drinks, towels, sunscreen, and that all the things are getting done… it feels about 20 degrees hotter.

At one point I had to go inside, sit on my bedroom floor directly in front of the fan, and recover. Dennis came with me and claimed it was to “make sure I didn’t die.”

Sure, Dennis.

I think he wanted the air conditioning too. 😂

Eventually Dennis got the water hose and just started spraying people. It did not matter if you were in the pool, out of the pool, walking by, or just existing. If you were outside, you were fair game.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Dang Oklahoma heat. We are used to it… but we are also usually smart enough to stay inside when it’s that hot. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly have a backyard cookout in the living room.

We made a ridiculous amount of hot dogs, smoked sausage, barbecue chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad, fresh fruit, cupcakes, and had ice chests full of drinks. Basically the normal holiday spread where you prepare like you’re feeding the entire neighborhood.

And kids are funny. They ask for food all day long… until the food is actually ready.

Then suddenly swimming is more important than eating.

We made everyone dry off long enough to take family pictures, which is basically an Olympic event with that many kids. Then they jumped right back in the pool and within minutes were yelling from the shallow end asking if they could have a cupcake.

Of course. 😂

Then Oklahoma said, “That’s cute. Let me add a little drama.”

A huge storm cloud rolled in and shut the Fourth down. Some areas had winds up to 90 mph — thankfully not where we were — but it was enough to postpone the fireworks show until the 5th.

Because apparently even the fireworks looked at the weather and said, “Yeah… we’re not doing this today.”

It was hot. It was chaotic. It was loud. It was exhausting.

And it was exactly what a family Fourth of July should be. ❤️🇺🇸