This Is Our Independence

Hello July 4th. Goodbye July 4. That's about how long it lasted. We spent the day with Nathan's dad and brother since his mom is out of town for a while. We got to their house sometime in the mid afternoon and for some reason, everyone was hungry so we went to the store and picked up some food. Typical July 4 fare. Hot dogs, hamburgers, fixings, sweet potato fries, grilled corn (which was delishhhh) and our homemade peach ice cream to finish it off.
The guys seemed enthralled with trying to shoot the squirrels out of the apple tree. BB gun came in quite handy, except that it didn't shoot straight- lol. Sampson wasn't quite sure what to think.... After it got dark, we lit sparklers with a defunked lighter. Of course they had no matches in their house so when the lighter gave out, we resorted to lighting the sparklers with other sparklers before the 1st one went out! **Whew**
Here are some pictures:

Lighting...and then.....

"Sword" fighting!!!! :) 

I am amazed at how this is an almost perfect circle. Nathan was standing sideways and rotated his arm at the shoulder.  How perfect is God's design for our bodies? This is amazing.

Stephen had the idea to try to "outline" Nathan with the sparkler. I was messing with the settings on my camera and only got part of this. Still looks pretty cool.

Setting achieved! :) 

I found this funny. We will have been together for 10 years in March. Neither of us knew what shape we would make in the air. My sparkler was dying... haha!

These were the last sparklers of the night... I pushed the shutter and ran over to Nathan and Stephen. Stephen and I obviously, were jumping around like maniacs -- you can hardly see us! 

And that folks, concludes our day. "Thank you" is definitely never enough thanks and gratitude to those who have sacrificed their lives so that we could have an Independence day and spend it how we choose. Thank you to those family members that I hardly get to see, the neighbors that return home, the friends that have made the ultimate sacrifice and those who put their lives on the line every day. You will never know the depth of my appreciation for the life that you have chosen, to keep our country free.

~~~~~

It is the Soldier, not the reporter who has given us freedom of the press;

It is the Soldier, not the poet who has given us freedom of speech;

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer who has given us freedom to demonstrate

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, 

whose coffin is draped by the flag, 

who allows the protester to burn that same flag

~~~~~

God Bless America, My Home Sweet Home...