Independance Day

Douglas and his first watermelon from our garden. It tasted delicious!

Marley loved the watermelon so much he even ate the
nasty part all the way down to the rind.

Marley didn't want to leave my arms for the first hour so we snuggled and I covered his ears.

Grandpa Riley and Marley

Gracie loves fireworks, but she was a little scared after being burned last time.

A little blurry but this is the fire that broke out behind us. There were several trucks watching for fires and they got it under control pretty quick. We started a few small ones of our own, but were able to stamp them out. Talk about adrenaline rush!

Douglas playing with fireworks on his favorite holiday.

Our friends Steph and Sam

Marley lit his first firework and wasn't quite sure about the results.

Isaac shooting roman candles with his dad, Daylin and brother, Joseph.

I love pictures of fireworks!

This one is especially cool!

Steph nervously lit this one and it turned out beautiful!

I love the crackly bursts.

What a beautiful day to celebrate our country's freedom! The day was sunny and hot and we started off right with a flag ceremony and pancake breakfast at the church. It was nice to talk to so many people from the ward outside of our regular meetings. Grandma and Grandpa Williams and Uncle Leroy joined us and we spent the day making food and anticipating fireworks. Thanks to Douglas and Riley we had great ribs, pasta salad, cantaloupe, watermelon from our garden, potato salad, baked beans, key lime pie and peach cobbler. Yum!

When it finally got dark we headed out to pop fireworks. It was so nice to see so many people out celebrating and the skies were filled with bright colored fireworks. It made me feel all warm inside and I'm so grateful to live in a country that has been built on good morals and faith in God. Thank you to all those who sacrifice to serve our country. Especially my brother Dan who is deployed in Mosul right now. Thank you for having the courage to leave the comforts of everyday life to provide service on foreign soil. We love you and your family and you are all amazing!

My father in law and his friend Jim provided a truck full of fireworks for us to enjoy. Our friends Joseph, Victoria, Gavin and the Myers family joined us. We played for about 2 hours until the fireworks were gone and everyone was too tired to keep their eyes open. Thanks to everyone for joining us. It was a great holiday!