Happy 4th of July

I am proud to be an American and I am teaching my son about what that means. He is a bit confused on what it means to be "free" but we are still working on that process. We talked about honoring those who have sacrificed for our country. Anytime talk of soldiers comes up, he remembers our friend, Josh Reeves, who died last fall while fighting in Iraq. Although he does not understand what it meant to "fight to protect the freedom of others", Porter does understand that Josh did a brave thing and was a hero. In addition to Josh, we have other friends serving our country and used this day to talk about them and their families as well. We pray for their safe return home.

For our fun festivities, we spent the day at the pool. As soon as we started to get in the pool, we heard thunder so we had to get out. Once the lifeguard felt it was safe to resume, we returned for about 10 minutes before it started again. This is how the day went. Once the thunderstorm actually hit, we decided to go home and have our dinner before fireworks. Grandma Maggie had come to visit and spent the day with us. We enjoyed seeing her and hope she enjoyed her visit. Matt made sure to 'burn' her hotdogs...just the way she likes 'em!

After dinner we headed to the park for fireworks. I typically avoid situations with large crowds. I get very anxious and can't enjoy myself. Regardless, we felt that the boys would enjoy it and had lots of friends from church gathering together for the event. Since the rain stopped, I didn't have a good excuse to stay home and we went. The evening was fun. Porter loved running around and playing with his friends. Matt and I enjoyed chatting with our buddies and Dixon enjoyed everything. He even did well during the fireworks display.