The Fourth of July

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Overall I'd rank today as an "Okay" fourth. Nothing spectacular with a few, could have been disastrous if I didn't have one heck of a sense of humor.

Of course raising my children has taught me to laugh, often. Otherwise life is just to depressing. But back to the fourth!! To start off we went to the local parade. I mean, that should be safe enough right? Someone, not thinking changed the time of the parade from 10:00 am to 11:00 am.

Then they told no one. I do mean no one! The people in the parade were lined up and ready to go at 9:30, the normal time!

My mom had picked up Scott so between Scott and the kids, they were going nuts waiting an hour and half before the parade actually started. Then there was the rain at 9:50, followed by some decent weather until the almost microburst, we're talking the most intense wind that sent everyone's belonging's flying up and down the street.

I ended up with David on my lap just sobbing, telling me how afraid he was. Everyone took cover in the car except me, I was chasing down a camp chair cover that took off. When I finally ducked my sopping wet and wind blown self into the car, I found out I was interrupting a prayer. David was praying for good weather, bless his wonderful, faith filled heart.

Light sprinkles followed and finally after what seemed like most of our day wasted, the parade started.

I was extremely disappointed to note that there was no color guard. Yes that's right, no American Flag in the Fourth of July parade. That is just wrong.

Kent just told me that a couple of years ago, his younger brother's Ward's Scout Troop had contacted the parade organizers and told them they would love to carry the flag. They were told absolutely not because they were a Mormon Scout troop.

I am. Sickened.

So the organizers of the parade are so against the LDS Church, they won't let teenagers, who happen to be LDS, honor the flag in a color guard meant to celebrate our Country? Would that happen to any other Religion?

Throw in that the whole parade was pretty darn lame, we're just not supporting them anymore. It's not worth the aggravation. The bad weather was just an ironic twist.

However, Kent spent a good six hours tackling the project that was putting together shelves in the garage. He ran into all kinds of snags including not only having to cut part of another shelf off to make room but he had to empty the fifty gallon water drum because it was two inches worth of in the way.

I got to help with the empty the drum. Lucky me!

We also netted the cherry tree. Our only hope for cherries, those birds are piggies!

We then made it up to Kent's parent's house where we roasted hot dogs and ate lots of other foods. We made it back home where Marja had the kids churn the most delicious homemade ice cream. Throw in some great fireworks fun and the day didn't end so bed.

The highlight of the evening was watching Kent help a friend's disabled son light his first two fireworks. The first was a smoke ball and the second, I remembered a larger piece that also just discharged smoke. Perfect because there was nothing to startle him or hurt him. Oh my goodness, how his face lit up when he knew he did it!

The shining moment of the evening for sure.