4th of July

We enjoyed a nice 4th of July this year. Jacob was supposed to work swing shift, but they closed up for the week so he got to enjoy the day with us!  He walked in the 4th of July parade, dressed as a missionary, since our stake had a float this year.  He came home sunburned but happy.  Like most of the country, we have had a long stretch of heat, so we spent a lot of the day in the basement, playing games and watching movies.

For dinner we made baby back ribs and decided we really do have the technique down. They were amazing!  We had made Strawberry Ice cream earlier and it turned out great. We also made homemade chocolate "frosties" and froze the rest as ice cream.Yummy, yummy!

About dusk, the neighborhood got going, so we parked our chairs out front and had the most amazing view of fireworks ever!  Neighbors on either side were shooting huge fireworks up in the air and the neighbors across the street were doing the smaller kind. We had a few of those so we lit them off and then just sat back to enjoy the show!  

The neighbors all had family over and it pulled at my heartstrings a bit to see the familial fun.  Grandpas and Dads were lighting off fireworks and little ones were running around with sparklers.  I got a little sad remembering 4th of July when Dad was here.  For many years he and Richard would go to the Fireworks stand and load up on all the best ones. Then we'd have anyone in the family who wanted to join us come over and watch as Dad and Richard lit them off, sometimes one by one, sometimes by the bunch!  We were so serious about our fireworks that one year my Mom made a list of them all as we lit them off and then we voted on them. Then, every year after that, the guys took that list shopping with them and got only our very favorites!  My Dad was never afraid to jump in and have a great time and his enthusiasm for life was inspiring.  I missed him so terribly last night.  I know he is busy where he is and I know he is happy being busy, but I hope he gets to take a break from time to time to look in on us all.  I know there were some fireworks last nigh that he would have loved!