The docks were definitely rocking tonight!

Our town has an event (almost) every Memorial Day and Independence Day weekends called Rockin the Docks. We had only been once in the past, even though we intend to go every year. Usually we forget until it's too late. This year we went for Memorial Day, but not until around 9 (fireworks start at 10). We decided that for the next one (tonight) we'd go early, take a picnic dinner, and have a good time.

We were given a picnic basket and dishes set for a wedding gift 14 years ago, and I really wanted to use them. We dug them out and I cleaned them up, and packed up the dishes and some drinks. We stopped at KFC and picked up a family pack of 8 pc chicken bucket and two large sides. Perfect picnic food! We went to the park and hiked from a parking area to the lake. We found a nice spot behind the stage, under a tree and near the water, and had our picnic. Then Emma took Sophie to the playground and I joined them.

Emma found a friend in the crowd and joined her for the evening, and eventually the rest of us ended up with them also. Since we arrived around 7:30, we had plenty of fun time. Sophie spent a lot of time on the swings, and went down the slide a couple of times, too.

We really enjoyed the music, especially the last band. They played all covers, but were actually really good! There was even a crowd near the stage dancing and singing along.

Finally, it was fireworks time. This time the fireworks were so much better! They were good on Memorial Day weekend, but this time was just "more." Sophie was almost asleep when they started, and she jumped up, captivated. Unfortunately I couldn't remember how to find the fireworks setting on my camera and couldn't find it tonight, so I didn't get any good pictures of the fireworks themselves.

Here are pictures of the evening:

Dancing with Daddy

Picnicking

Lake starting to fill up with boats

American Legion starting things off

Swing time!

Stopping to chat with strangers

More boats

I found the fireworks barge!

Emma and her friend

Hello blue eyes!

They clapped and cheered at the end

I found this interesting tonight - I noticed that someone on stage said there were 13,000 people in the park tonight, not counting all the hundreds on boats on the water. The population of our town is only 8,000-something!