Happy Independence Day

I felt like it was one of the best 4th of July celebrations ever. Photoguy, being a photojournalist, is often covering the events of the 4th (also known as working). But, not this year. The day started early. We hauled our kids, decked out in their red, white and blue clothes, over to the stake center for a 7:30 a.m. children's parade. After so many years of pulling the kids in their wagon in this parade, it was a true delight to see all three of them riding bikes (AiAi on his trike) decorated in streamers. They are growing up so much and it's fun.

After the parade (an event so exciting that my kids couldn't go to sleep until after 11 p.m. the night before, so great was their anticipation), we stayed for the flag raising ceremony. I bawled through The Star Spangled Banner, which made me feel like a nerd. I tried very hard to conceal the tears.

Then we were off to the Cherry Days parade in North Ogden. Photoguy brought along a bucket of water and three super soakers. He was such a character running around squirting water on the parade participants while his three shadows mimicked his every move. Most people (being sprayed by Photoguy) reacted with surprise and then asked him to do it again because it felt so refreshing. It was a hoot!

The weather was perfect. It was hot but overcast so the sun wasn't beating down on us and there was a refreshing breeze. It felt like it was about to storm all day but never did. Ahhh . . . such luxury after the string of scorchers we've been having.

Then, it was back to our house for a BBQ. A part of me felt like I would like to invite some friends. But, another part of me was happy that it was just our little family together. After a feast, and a well earned nap, we hooked up with two of our favorite families and took all the kids to see Kung Fu Panda. I have to admit, I had low expectations of this film for some reason. Perhaps it was because of the low expectations, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. We were laughing our heads off through the whole movie!

After that, we headed to Weber High School for an amazing fireworks show, and we also lit off a few of our own. It was the perfect day, and I always love to reflect on my gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy.

Saturday, I took the kids swimming while Photoguy went to work. Soph jumped off the diving board twice and swam to the side while I held my breath. E-Man paddled all over the pool with one of those inflatable rings, and AiAi the fearless went down a slide that plunged him into 4-foot-deep water and jumped off the side to me more times than I could count, he was laughing the whole time, and he thoroughly wore me out. I was thinking about how just a few years ago, I didn't dare to take Soph and E-Man to the pool by myself, it was so hard to keep track of multiple babies around water. Now, I'm able to take all three, and they didn't even wear life jackets. That was a first. We did stick together (don't worry Photoguy, I watched them every second), but it is weird and nice to have the kids getting just a bit older.

As we sat in the sun to dry off, E-Man let me pull his second loose tooth. As he put it, "It was just hanging on by a thread for days." That night when we placed it in an envelope for the Tooth Fairy, he asked me to write a note asking her, please, to not take his tooth. "I worked really hard on pulling out that tooth and I don't want to waste it," he told me.

Today, in sacrament meeting, several people, young and old, bore testimonies about their gratitude for their freedom and talked about how they can't make it through The Star Spangled Banner without weeping. That is the song we sang for the closing hymn. I, of course, wept. But, this time I didn't feel so embarrassed about it.

The song didn't mean so much to me until a few years ago when I heard the story of how it was penned by Francis Scott Key while being held hostage aboard an enemy ship, listening to the bombs flying overhead and peeking throughout the night at our flag waving to let him know that all was not lost. Now, every time I sing it, I vividly envision him on that stormy night writing the words of his heart as he kept an eye on the flag, the epitome of all hope and freedom to him in that moment. It chokes me up every time to reflect on how he must have felt. It brings all my tender patriotic feelings right to the surface.

Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

On the shore, dimly seen thru the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream.

Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we m ust, when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"

Tis the star spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!