happy fourth!

There is a reason that this is one of my favorite holidays of the year. It has been such a fun day today celebrating, literally, all day long. In the morning we followed tradition with the Centerville City parade which Ethan was way into this year and watched intently until the last ten minutes or so when he lost all control and wanted to run away. Typical toddler, but we had fun anyway. Just like every year, the local military marched past us and when they do, I ALWAYS cry, I try not to, but it's so moving to see everyone standing and cheering these heroes. Later on the in the afternoon we headed to Nate's house for a Moore get together, but I am lame and didn't bring out the camer until after Andrea's family had already left. Anyway, also not pictured are the babies: Joey, Tanner and Natalie. Nate cooked my favorite, Colisimo brats with lots of mustard YUM and Jenny picked the best watermelon, just ask Ethan...

The kids had a riot jumping on the trampoline and then slipping through the slip and slide. Nate was worried there wouldn't be anything exciting for the older kids, I told him water + cousins = good times and I was right. The best part of the afternoon were Frank's trampline adventures....

Nice running man Frank! I have more pictures where these came from, what a good sport. The kids had some trampoline adventures of their own but those I'll have to treasure myself instead of clogging the blog with too many pics. (finished the rest of this blog on 7/5) On a more serious note, I told Rich last night that I cried when the military people walked passed us yesterday at the parade. He surprised me by saying that he got choked up himself, it really is such a big deal. He said he noticed on the side of the float was written "all give up some and some give up all" and how profound that really is, giving up everything. I feel so grateful to live in this country, it is such a wonderful place even with all of it's problems, I really do feel very blessed to live here. I feel especially grateful to live in this small town of Centerville where not all values have been tossed out the window. We genuinely love our neighbors and feel so lucky to live around such loving people. I also feel grateful that as a woman I don't have anyone telling me that I can't get an education or wear a veil or even worse, the horrific stories of female circumcision and honor killings. I can feel excited for all of the opportunities in front of my children and even myself and these are things that we don't always think about. I love America! And I'm grateful for everyone who makes it great.

We finished up the day at Grandma Smith's house where Lauren (April's sister) did a fantastic job of grilling (yes I confess I had MORE brats) and also roasted peppers and mom's family famous potato salad. Is there anything better than mom's potato salad? NO, I've tried them all, they pale in comparrison. There was so much good food I thought I might be sick but every calorie was worth it, so good. After we wer done eating we sat around and laughed, Smith-family style. My dad is in PA right now (he always is for the fourth) visiting his family, so it was mom, my family, Jake, April, their kiddies and Lauren. Later Jason, Leah and their family joined us for home-done fireworks out on the driveway, my favorite part. It's so difficult to take a good picture in the dark so last night I just tried to take a mental picture, everyone sitting around in their captain's chairs, the warm air, and the boys (husbands) at the end of the driveway talking about the next firework or seeing who can set the record for how many flowers they can light at once. And my mom saying "oooo that's a good one!" and April saying it Jean style (her mom is from England). Then when each firework is done, everyone cheers. Good times, good times. I love this holiday...