Here Comes the Parade

After three years of waiting, Matthew has finally made it high school and marching band! He had three days of band camp this week in preparation for yesterday’s parade. When Daniel did summer band they marched in multiple parades, but Matthew, who is in a different school, just did the one in our own little town. He had a great time and worked some different muscles. This little peek at marching has him very excited to get started in fall marching band which will start at the end of July.

Last night was also the annual fireworks show and family gathering with Kevin’s clan. I skipped out due to a week’s worth of headaches and late nights, but everyone else had fun. Malia was, as always, pleased as punch to spend some time with her girl cousins. Daniel and Matthew used the remaining daylight to play a little frisbee. Even Nathan was able to join in the festivities by calling to talk to Kev’s mom for a few minutes. With the current missionary contact rules, they are allowed to call for big family events as well as the major holidays and weekly calls, so it was all perfectly legal. I think everyone had a great time and while I would have liked to be there, I got some much need sleep.

Author of Liberty

Last night was our annual evening of fireworks at Kev’s folks’ house. The festivities in which we participate at this time of year usually fill my thoughts with gratitude for those who have fought, struggled and died in order to create and preserve this wonderful country. This year my thoughts were led another way. I was filled with an intense feeling of gratitude for the Lord and how he inspired and directed many men and women in the establishment of this country, this free country where the gospel could be restored. D&C 101:80 says “And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.” The Lord had a plan. He knew a country built on religious freedom would be needed in order for the gospel to be restored. And I’m so grateful that not only was his plan infallible, but I’m indebted to all those who have made innumerable sacrifices to make it happen and I’m beyond grateful to be living in that country where I can reap the benefits of that religious freedom.

And since I’m apparently in the mood for confessing, I didn’t make it all the way through “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” when we sang it is sacrament meeting today. When we got to the fourth verse, my heart was too full and my darn cry baby gene took over.

Our fathers' God, to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King!

On the lighter side, it was my turn to take dessert to dinner at my parents’ house this evening and I decided to go patriotic. Red, white and blue striped! And tasty too!

Now for my favorite quote from last night’s gathering. As the fireworks began, Kev’s college aged niece, SharLee, stated, “I love America. We blow stuff up.”

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

I enjoy the 4th of July. Although I’m not necessarily a fan of being outside in the blazing July sun or smelling like smoke if the wind is blowing the wrong way after a big round of fireworks, I most definitely like the holiday itself. I think it’s because my patriotism runs deep. When I think about the day to day circumstances of people living in many other places in the world, I feel deeply blessed to live where I do. My kids don’t have to worry about getting shot on their way to school. We don’t go to sleep each night to the thunder of bombs falling. We don’t worry about where our next meal is coming from. We don’t long for an education that we can never have. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that we are enormously blessed. Independence Day always reminds me of that and brings to my mind the gratitude I feel for all those men and women who fought and suffered and sacrificed to make this such a great place to live. Yes, our country is not perfect. We have our problems. There are times when I can’t watch the news because it makes me so mad. And don’t even get me started on my feelings towards many of the political circuses that occur. Sometimes I feel like the founding fathers would be ashamed of what the government has come to. But even taking into consideration all our country’s faults, it’s still a pretty amazing place to live. As such, we have a tendency to go red, white and blue for longer than just a day. And we do it in food, clothes, and activities. 😊

This year’s patriotic t-shirts were made with Sharpies and rubbing alcohol. The rubbing alcohol was supposed to make the Sharpies bleed creating a tie dye effect, but we felt like the results were lackluster. The process was fun though.

This year Kevin and the kids joined his brother Cory and his family for one of their 4th of July traditions. I opted out since they had to get up at 4:00 a.m. and I really didn’t want to end up spending the day nursing a migraine triggered by lack of sleep and messing with my body’s normal schedule. (Dumb migraines.) They drove south and attended a hot air balloon festival. With five people and six cameras, everyone got in on the action. (I may not have mentioned this, but all the boys have become shutterbugs of late. It has been super fun.) They ended up with hundreds of photos, many of which were really great, but I think Matthew got in one of the best shots of the day. He spent a lot of time watching a seagull, framing shots, getting everything just right, and came out of it with this:

Here are a couple more favorites.

Since most of the fam was elsewhere for breakfast, we ate our red, white and blueberry pancakes for lunch. And our traditional tri-colored patriotic beverages accompanied our dinner. Matthew is still the master where these are concerned.

As usual, we saw big fireworks last Saturday with Kevin’s folks. This evening we hauled out the littler fireworks and then took advantage of our view of the valley to watch a multitude of other fireworks. (My sister Esther joined us since she hadn’t had an opportunity to see any fireworks yet and was feeling deprived.) With the legalization of aerial fireworks a couple of year ago, we even had a few of those (but small ones that don’t cost an entire month’s worth of grocery money to buy). Malia contributed the best comment of the evening. After we set off the first aerial, she asked with a bit of bewilderment, “What did it do? Did it write her name?” There was a long, long pause while we all looked at her with total confusion. Seeing our looks, she clarified, “Ariel?” (She was talking about "The Little Mermaid.") And then there was laughter. Mighty laughter. Gotta love homophones!

Matthew, on the other hand, contributed the best fashion accessory when he decided to wear his parachute as a 4th of July bonnet.

How blessed we are to be able to spend yet another year celebrating the peace and plenty that we have in the good old US of A!

(The downside of having four children who are full of personality is that it is incredibly difficult to get a picture where all of them look normal. 😂)

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

Sometimes I think we take for granted the fact that we live in a country that is built on the concept of freedom. I know that I do. But sometimes, like today, I found myself pondering on those freedoms and being enormously grateful for the blessings I have as a citizen of this great country. Sure, we have our problems, but overall we have it pretty good.  It is reassuring to know that I can live where ever I want, do whatever kind of a work I desire, worship in the way that feels best for me, express my opinions without fear of punishment, the list could go on and on.

I’m not sure how it is in other parts of the valley, but from where we live we can look out and see fireworks exploding across the entire valley. There are so many people shooting off fireworks in our neighborhood that it literally sounds like a war zone. As we sat outside this evening listening to the cacophony, it brought to mind the fact that the freedoms we have were gained because there were many willing to give up everything for the concept of freedom. All those, past and present, who are willing to serve in the armed forces have my respect, my admiration and my gratitude. May we all take a moment to honor them and to give thanks for all that we have.

So here is a glimpse of how we celebrated this year:

My mom and my sisters and I got patriotic pedicures.

Our favorite 4th of July beverage

Stompin' Poppers

Synchronized Popper Pelting

Sparklers for Beginners

Omega Bright Neon Sparklers for Big Boys

Nathan AKA: The Evil Wizard

Seriously, these sparklers were bright!

Spinning Sparklers Make Fun Pictures

Playing with Ice Cubes After a Couple People Burn Themselves

God Bless America

On Saturday night we had the pleasure of doing our first bit of patriotic celebrating for this summer season. The city where my in-laws (and my parents, for that matter) live holds their big celebration the weekend before the 4th of July. Each year we have dinner with Kev's folks, hang out for the evening, and finish up the festivities with the fireworks display. This year Kev's siblings and their families were able to join us and we had a wonderful time.

Nathan, in spite of his excitement, was still nervous during the fireworks. He has always been that way. I think the noise is what bothers him. When he was one (and even two, I think), he wouldn't even watch. He would just bury his head in someone's shoulder, cover his ears, and wait for it to end. He watched the year he was three, but I think Aunt Connie covered his ears the entire time. And last year was even worse. He had tubes put in his ears in May, and after nearly a year of muffled hearing due to all the fluid in his ears, the noise was almost more than he could handle. This year he was determined to be brave. He started off sitting next to one of his cousins, but after about five minutes he hastily relocated to where Kev and I were sitting. But as long as one of us was close, he was okay.

Daniel was nervous the first year or two that he watched fireworks, but got over it quickly after that. Now it is an event that he truly looks forward to. It is fun to watch fireworks with Daniel because he yells and cheers when he is impressed. He really has no inhibitions about expressing his enjoyment of any event! As usual, the finale was fabulous. They very literally light up the sky. And Daniel loved it so much he drew a picture of the finale to share with everyone.


Matthew is the first of our children to enjoy the fireworks at the ripe old age of one. When the first one went up, his eyes got very big and then he laughed. He continued to grin and clap until he got too tired. Since his usual bedtime is 8:00 and he gave up clapping about 10:30, I think he did amazingly well!

So we had a great time. And I love that the boys are quickly gaining a sense of patriotism and the blessing it is to live in this country.