Pretty Fireworks : behind the scenes :)

Pretty fireworks fill the air

Every year around this time.

But the biggest and the baddest

where do they come from......

My brother works for a company called Melrose Pyrotechnics

he shoots off those lovely firework shows that your towns have every year for you :)

He has his own crew and my Hubby joined him this year

I wanted to kinda let you know how these things work and the prep work 

and physical labor that goes into it.

Because all these people deserve a big thanks 

they get paid little money for the kind of work they do

Just to make us all happy 

being able to see those beautiful explosions in the sky

Early in the wee hours of the morning the boys set out to start their setup

around 7 am while we are still sleeping in

The start by setting up dozens of racks that hold the tubes that contain the fireworks.

Then they mount the racks together and make sure they are all secure.

Then they drop in the shells (fireworks)

Those are all wired to Slats (a central location)

and then that is wired to their main board

In summary.

There are a lot of tubes with fireworks and 

tons of wires all over the place

This process and prep work takes pretty much the entire day.

The boys usually work from 7 am until 9 pm at night

right before the show starts

This past weekend it was almost 90 degrees

Then finally the show begins!

There are 3 people on my brothers crew

1) this person shoots the fireworks using the switchboard

2) this person counts and helps #1 with when to shoot

3) this person is the spotter and looks to make sure there are no misfires and that everything goes off.

This year they shot for the town of New Lenox

and they did an amazing show

Probably the best show Ive seen, no doubt

There was an estimated 8,000 people there this year!

The nice thing about it is that me and my sisters get VIP parking :)

and front row seats!

What a fun show and thanks to the boys for all their hard work!

They worked from 7am-11:30

having to clean up everything themselves in the dark!

(left to right: Robbie, my brother Ryan, Hubby)

Well Happy 4th of July friends!
I must being going, my husband keeps screaming FroYo
over and over thinking that will make me
drive 30 minutes for him to get some FroYo...
no today, im too tired :)

-Steph