Fourth RunDown

This year for the Fourth of July, we played it cool.

N.O. Parade at 10am. Loads of candy, a little crying and alot of people cheering for Lemur's rockin' dance moves.

Cherry Days complete with cotton candy, an oversized pretzle, a ride on the big slide, a cork-pop gun, and Rivulet napping in the shade.

Home for a nap while the kids played with Muad'Dib. Lemur and Muad'Dib actually have taken up the card game Magic. Lemur has beat Muad'Dib three out of five times! He loves to play! They both do. It's cute. And weird. Mostly cute.

Dinner of grilled hot dogs washed down with some raspberry lemonade (I know, "Can we BE more American?!"

Then we ate popsicles outside and I pushed my kids on the swingset in our back yard. They got restless so we went for a walk in the now quiet neighborhood. It was nice.

Finally, fireworks. We went late and decided just to sit on the front lawn of Weber High School. We could only barely hear the music. So when Lemur declared, "What is that sound? It's freaking me out!" Muad'Dib had to listen closly before he replied, "It freaks me out, too son. It's called Country Music."

Then as I was watching the fireworks, I thought about how the closer you are to something, more room it takes up in your life. Like, fireworks, when you are directly under them, are bright, loud, perfectly round and synchronized with Patriotic music. But from far away, they are like firefly butts flying low to the ground. No sound, no wonder, not pushing and clawing to be the ONLY thing you are thinking about. Still: to someone, those fireworks are all they see, all they CAN see. It's like life. This analogy is still rattling around in my brain.

This year was low key. We didn't invite people over, we didn't really go anywhere we couldn't walk to . . . we didn't even take pictures. This day was ours. I loved it. I love having the freedom to celebrate freedom any way I want.

I hope you all enjoyed that freedom as well! Happy Fourth of July!!