July 4th Festivities

July 4th fell on a Friday this year so it made for a really nice 3 day weekend! The Angels were in town this year so my friend Wendy (the one who knows everybody) called me up and asked if Lance and I would like to participate in the pre-game ceremonies. Um.....let me think about it for a second.....of course we would!!

Normally on the 4th of July we have a BBQ at my parents house and do some fireworks when it gets dark. I think this is only the second time I have missed the firework show at my parents house in all my years. It was well worth it though! We got to hold a massive flag on the field during the National Anthem. Being on the field was so awesome, I wished we could have stayed longer! Check out our opening day post to see what the flag looks like when it's open. Lance, Wendy, Diane, George and I were on the left hand side of the flag. Notice on opening day they have about 50 or so people on that left side, ya, well, we only had about 10. On that entire side of the flag. It made the flag that much heavier, but still very cool!

Here we are "snapping" the flag together. The big piece with the stars is one piece but all 13 red and white stripes are all shipped separately. When they are pulled out of the bags we have to go along and snap the red stripe to the white stripe. Wendy is snapping away here, she had to do 300 of them just for this row we were in. When we got to the end we were hoping and prayer we would end up even. We didn't want to have to unsnap 260 of them to get it to be even again!

This is me and Lance getting ready to head out on the field! The great thing about where we were holding the flag was that we didn't have to carry it onto the field. We just walked next to it while everyone else was carrying it! That was really cool because we got to take everything in, instead of worrying about carrying the flag. Since Wendy has done this before, she let us in on her little secret. Thanks Wendy! hahahaha

This picture should give you a great idea as to how ginormous this flag actually was! You can also see where it is snapped together. Even though you can see the gaps when you are so close, no one in the stadium seats can see it because they are too far away.

We were instructed before we even got on the field to "wave" the flag when the word wave comes up in the anthem. Now waving a flag this size is no easy task. You literally have to pull it all the way down to your feet, then lift it all the way over your head over and over to make it wave in a way that everyone in the stadium can see. But as the picture shows, when it's done right, it looks really cool. And the crowed loved it as well, they all went crazy.

Here you can see the flyover coming. This year instead of jets or the B2 Bomber they had a huge and I do mean HUGE military plane. The thing was so slow that the National Anthem had finished and we were still standing there waving the flag waiting for the plane to fly over. When it did though, boy was it amazing!

It was so low, so loud and so huge that it was really amazing to see. It was kind of nice that it was so slow because we did get to spend more time on the field with the flag!

The great thing about doing the pre-game show was that we got to stay and watch the game! This is during the 7th inning stretch. They handed out mini flags and it was so awesome to see 45,000 fans waving their small flags around the stadium. Let me rephrase, it was awesome seeing 44,999 fans waving their flags since it seems Wendy didn't want to wave hers. =) Maybe she had enough flag waving on the field! hahahaha

I would normally never put this picture on the blog because it was at the end of the game, we were tired, and sweaty and have shiny faces. But I figured we could definitely look worse, and George and Dianne (who are over Wendy's left shoulder) are cracking me up. I have no idea what they are so in aw over? They aren't facing the game if they were, we'd see the back of their heads. Who knows but it made me laugh!

Overall it was a great 4th of July. We got to spend time with family at the BBQ and friends at the game! And the Angels won which is just a cherry on top. Suzy, we missed you, and we are glad you are feeling better. Hopefully we'll get to do this again in September and then hopefully in the World Series too! Now, we just have to make sure the Angels get to the World Series!!