Happy 4th of July!

HAPPY 4th EVERYONE!  What a great holiday.  What a great country the U.S.of A. is!  We are so incredibly blessed to live in this wonderful land.  I have been reading a book called Wild Swans and the oppression and hardships of the lives of these Chinese is so sad.  Many things have changed I am sure since the book was published--which is a non-fiction book, by the way.  Weirdly enough this book by the author, who is from China, is banned from China.  And another of her books is banned from China.

Moving on to happier thoughts!  Cal is working on his mountain biking merit badge. It's a good excuse for us (or Lee) to take the kids out on a bike ride.






In addition to not being super-punctual (see prior post) I tend to put things off.  But once I start the project I can't just let it go half-way; I need to get it done! Like stay-up-till-3am-to-get-it done! I bought paint for our shed a couple months ago and we got the shed painted.  We don't have a floodlamp so I held the flashlight for a good long while.  I need to post more photos, but it looks SOO much better!


After just a few hours of sleep we headed over to Oakdale Park for a tri-unit potluck breakfast, games, visiting and a 5k.  We don't have hardly any patriotic t-shirts.  Then next best thing: blue BYU shirts.  So USA-ian! I did my best in a long while....about 8:30 per mile.  My poor friend Sara....we planned on going to this race together and then I didn't even run with her.  I guess I was too psyched up to get a good time knowing it was only 3 miles. A young man came in first, Cal second and myself third.  Granted there weren't very many people running, but it was still fun!








After the park we went swimming with our friends the Whitings at their home.
















So July 4th was so fun and relaxing-especially thanks to all the people who hosted us!  For dinner we headed to another place for a crab and shrimp boil.  So fun!

After dinner we headed to the Copeland's house for s'mores, ATV rides, fireworks and more pool swimming!










They don't mess around and bought TONS of AWESOME fireworks.  The most I've ever seen at a home.  The kids were in heaven.




On our way back we saw the fireworks show going off in our little town. I had NO idea that our town put on a fireworks display.  Apparently they haven't done it the past few years.  I hope they keep up the firework display!

Now my nerd peeked though on this mission: get the kids' backpacks ready.  We finished them up July 5th, I think, and now they are sitting in my room awaiting the start of the school year!


Cal also learned how to do his own laundry.  I don't think he's ready to go solo, but maybe he is.


A local dairy hands out a free pint of chocolate milk to the kids signed up for the reading program.  They have baby calves to put and what not.




Some little tag-ons at the end, but wow, what an incredibly fun 4th of July!  My mom pointed out that this is one of her favorite holidays.  There isn't a lot of work involved, just being with good friends, family and a chance to celebrate our freedoms.