July 4, 2014

One of my favourite book series is the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read them over and over growing up, brought them to England with us and pick them up every once in awhile. Last year when we were still in the UK, I picked up Little Town on the Prairie again.  The Fourth of July really stood out and I made a mental note to include it in our celebration the next year.  Living in the UK has given me a new appreciation and perspective of the land that I call home- the USA. Here are Laura's thoughts as the little town celebrates by reading the Declaration of Independence and singing 'My Country Tis of Thee': 

     The crowd was scattering away then, but Laura stood stock still.  Suddenly she had a completely new thought.  The Declaration and the song came together in her mind, and she thought: God is America's king. 

     She thought: Americans won't obey any king on earth. Americans are free.  That means they have to obey their own consciences.  No king bosses Pa; he has to boss himself.  Why (she thought), when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn't anyone else who has a right to give me orders.  I will have to make myself be good. 

Her whole mind seemed to be lighted up by that thought.  that is what it means to be free.  It means, you have to be good.  "Our father's God, author of liberty-" The laws of Nature and of Nature's God endow you with a right to life and liberty.  Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God's law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free.  

This really resonates with me, I feel the responsibility of living in this country and want to be righteous and obedient to my father's God- so that my kids, and their kids can continue to be free. There are lots of people who will say that living in the USA is all about making choices- choices to do whatever that person feels like doing at the moment. With Laura I say that living in the Good ole USA, we have to make ourselves be good!

 New July 4 traditions this year- go to Wal-mart 3 different times, drive to Payson to get out of the heat, get caught in a rainstorm! It was actually a really fun day. We loved Payson, stopped at a little community carnival there. Then we drove north to do some hiking, which turned out to be really nice. With the kids we really pushed ourselves and went, oh, almost 1/2 mile. It was rough but we made it. The smell of the trees as the rain was pattering down was gorgeous! Paul and Jane rocked the hiking backpack! We made a stop for some icees, and decided to head home for fireworks in our driveway. Josh and Melo came over, and we all ended up in the bed of Paul's and Josh's truck driving down to the south gate on Miramar in search of fireworks we saw in the sky. Came home and CJL did some fireworks in the street. Beautiful memories in the gorgeous state of Arizona this year!

4th of July Festivities 2010

With the 4th landing on a Sunday this year, I felt like it was a whole weekend celebration! On Saturday we went up to the Junckers in Zimmerman and had an excellent time eating, swimming, playing on the bounce house, and playing softball. I made black eyed pea salsa and we brought steaks and sandwiches. I have been trying to eat more red meat to get a little bit more iron. Anyway it was a sticky hot day, but lots of fun .




Ethan and Zachary. Ethan: 'Aren't Zachary and Garrett like our cousins or something?'

Mason and Keith- Mason is a chunky little guy! He actually fell asleep while I was holding him, my babies rarely do that!

Curtis and Jonah

Garrett and Ethan on the bounce house which was more of an obstacle course with a sprinkler spraying all over. Pure fun.

July defined: a kid who ate nothing but Doritos for lunch playing his heart out with good friends in the sun.

On Sunday we went to church and took naps as usual, but then we went over to Sand Creek Park for fireworks. I downloaded some patriotic music and we took our little ihome player, and listened to 'God Bless the USA' and 'Stars and Stripes Forever' while we watched the fireworks. I think these were the best fireworks I have evern been to. We were so close that it felt like the fireworks were going to fall onto us- which there was some ash that we could see, and I found some ash later in the basket we brought. We had to crane our necks way back to see, it was like I remember growing up going to ISU somewhere (before they moved it to the fairgrounds). We were all mesmerized from the first one that went up. Awesome.

Ethan and sparklers

Curtis and I - photo by Ethan I think

Jonah took about 40 pictures on the fireworks while sitting on my lap. He did pretty decent job too! Even got a smiley face. We love the USA! We are so blessed to live and raise our family in this free land.