the fourth

mmmm. i love the fourth. i was telling shawn that besides christmas and thanksgiving it is for sure my favorite holiday and he said,"not sure what that leaves us. colombus day? you don't like colombus day?!?" he can be a smartass sometimes.

anyways. i love the fourth. bbq at grandma's, seeing cousins i never see but that i love with my whole heart, warm nights, fireworks, the parade, and i heart the balloons.

i especially loved it this year cuz it was spread out over the whole weekend. 3 wondrous days. so fun.

i love our country. i love my freedom. i love how safe i feel. i love that i feel the spirit when i hear the national anthem or recite the pledge of allegiance. i love the men and women who are brave enough to serve in the armed forces and defend all of the things i love. thank you. thank you to my brother, mike. and i thank my Heavenly Father for helping it all come to pass.

now, after all of that feeling and emotion, you would think it would be well-documented with pictures. but no. there are but two.

i was excited for the hot air balloons because this would be the first year that sammy would like it. so was jack. on the way there, he kept saying, "i'm so exciting! i'm so exciting!" ha ha! i couldn't bring myself to correct him, it was just too good. unfortunately, they couldn't fly because of the weather but we still had a good time watching them blow up.

this was the first year that the darth vader balloon joined the fest. with him came his whole crew as crowd control. the costumes were awesome, even did the cool voices when they spoke. jack was in awe. he gave this guy a high five seven times.