The 4th... er 3rd of July... :)

Yesterday my family cheated. I'll admit, we headed up to my parents house to celebrate the 3rd of July with them. Their little town does fireworks on the 3rd instead of the 4th so they don't compete with our, bigger city's, firework display. It's really nice cause we can see the towns display from my parents back porch.

This year when we arrived at their house it was raining (it was just a storm cell, no biggy), my mom hurt her arm earlier in the day so I helped out in the kitchen while my dad entertained the kidlets. The picture above is of him divvying out chips one by one so the kids wouldn't track them ALLLLLLL over the house. :)


After dinner we started with the personal fireworks (dad went to Alpine to get some good ones, GOOD JOB DAD!). Goober is describing the fireworks to dad as he sits on his lap.

Here is dad with all my kids! The kids are distracted by the fireworks Jer is lighting off :)

Goober and Missy with the Roman Candles.

Me helping EB with a sparkler.

This is one of my favorite holidays. I love that the whole nation gets together to celebrate our freedoms, not just our national holiday. I think this is one of the many reasons that Americans are so patriotic (or as some other countries would say "arrogant", I think they misinterpret national pride with thinking we are better than others. We aren't better, just more fortunate in many ways and we recognize that.)

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I am so grateful to have been born in this wonderful land, and while a disagree with many things our government does, I am still glad that I was not born elsewhere. As I look around myself and become more aware of the things going on in the world I continually am thankful for all of my freedoms.

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In many countries (even today) women are not thought of as equal, they have no freedom of speech or freedom of expression. They are oftentimes blamed for the hardships that others put upon them. They are often considered to be property, and if they get harmed or killed it is not considered something horrendous. I am so grateful that my daughter is able to be raised in a place that will give merit to her ideas, that will take her ambition and let it take her to wherever it will without discrediting it simply because she is a girl. This year, I'm not only grateful for my country in general but for the freedoms and rights it gives not only my sons, but my daughter as well.

God bless America.