Happy Independence Day!

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave!

Today was a different holiday celebration than what Nate and I are used to as it was the first time we've celebrated a major holiday without being surrounded by other family members. Normally we either head down to Portland, OR to visit with Nate's Parents and Grandparents or we would be hanging out with my family here in town (occasionally tossing in all the relatives on both sides celebrating at our house). This year we had in fact planned to be gone camping at Lake Pend Oreille with my family and my sister's boyfriend's family (say that three times fast!). However, after reviewing our summer schedule and realizing that Nate has an awful lot of travel and work craziness coming up, we decided to spend the 4th of July at home on our own.

The morning started with Nate sleeping in and Abby and I heading to our neighborhood park to attend a Freedom Festival put on by one of the local Mormon wards. We didn't hang out for too long as we'd gotten a later than expected start to the day, but I enjoyed watching the Boy Scout troop raise the flag, singing the anthem, and hearing a pretty nice opening festival speech while Abby enjoyed playing on the playground equipment. Then we headed back to the house to wake Nate up and head to East Pasco for the Pasco 4th of July Celebration parade. I had only a vague idea where the parade route was (only knowing where it ended actually) so we were pretty lucky in not only finding a parking spot within a decent walking distance but also a nice parade viewing spot with only 10 minutes to go before the parade started. A welcome addition to the festivities was that Mary Aardal and her four kids joined us (her husband was back home fixing up a car to sell). It was nice that Abby had some friends to play with, I had a friend to talk to, and Nate got more time to wake up before the craziness of the day hit. Finally the parade started!

The parade begins!

First up, after the American flag I should say, were the Freedom Riders. Having experienced a Westboro Baptist Church protest at the funeral of one of our town's fallen heroes, I am very grateful for the support these men and women show our Veterans and our military men and women who have been killed in the line of duty. I had to take this particular picture as the gentleman seated on the white motorcycle in the middle of the picture is probably the oldest man I have ever seen. And he was on a motorcycle! Shows that you're only as old as you feel!

As I am part of a Marine Corps family (Father retired after 30 years of service as a Lt. Col and my brother is currently in the Reserves) this was a much required picture of our town's Young Marines.

My high school friend, Stephanie Betcher, and her daughter, Sierra, marching in the parade with Sierra's Girl Scout troop. Yeah, Girl Scouts!

This poor little guy had had enough of parading for one day. He'd fallen asleep in his car stroller! Every once in a while you'd see his head do the bob thing where he'd jerk up awake for a second before slowing falling back asleep and dropping his head down.

While Abby did get a little bored of the parade at the beginning (what was the deal with car and car after car of state representatives with no throwing of candy!) she did get into the parade once the 'real' parade action of floats, bands, and animals came through.

These little girls were adorable dancing down the street.

An old police car. I thought Mary's comment was hilarious. I mentioned something to the affect of how it was a neat, old police car and she responded back with "Yeah, neat because you could easily outrun it. Wait. I shouldn't be outrunning a police car!" Maybe it was a had to be there kind of moment, but I thought it was a great comment from a Mom of four who tries so hard to install good morals into her kids.

  

The tractors were a big hit with all the kids. It was interesting seeing all the different types of tractors, too. I love that my town is small enough that you'll still have the occasional Tuesday night traffic jam as a convoy of harvesting machines are making their way down the freeway at 30 miles per hour. 

This guy was showing off as he was coming down the parade lane. I did not know how these big, hulky machines could pretty much turn and spin on a dime.

The Pasco High marching band. Just as we were thinking that this parade was missing something, along came these kids and reminded us that every parade needs a band!

I love seeing Clydesdale horses. They're simply huge! I think one of their hooves could easily be bigger than Abby's head. :-)

This poor kid had the 'fun' job of picking up any droppings left by any of the horses of the parade. He got a thunderous applause, and a few jokes about his job, as he came by our area.

These miniature ponies were also a hit with the kid's in the crowd. 

All too soon it was time to go. We actually left early (I think there ended up being an additional ten floats that we missed) because Abby was starting to get fussy at being cooped up in one spot for so long (at this point we'd been there almost an hour and a half) and we were running into lunch and nap time.

  

It ended up being a good thing we left when we did because Abby fell asleep on the ride home. 

 After the parade we ate lunch and then Abby and Nate went down for a nap. :-) I finished up a few items that were to be eaten at dinner time and then had a bit of 'me' time. After nap time we worked on the house a bit more (touching up paint inside the house and painting our newly fixed gate in the back yard) then it was break time with phone calls to Nate's Parents and Grandparents. After catching up with family it was dinnertime! I am pretty impressed with the success of this meal. Normally holidays mean that everyone brings a dish to share so it was unusual that I had to prepare everything for the meal. I decided to have a little fun and try a few dishes that I've never made before as well as some tried and true recipes.

First up were Deviled Eggs as an appetizer. As hard as it may be to believe I've never actually made these before. They've always been an item that I've requested others to bring but never got around to making myself. They turned out pretty good! That Betty Crocker sure knows what she's talking about. (Nate and I had to sample them just to make sure they were worthy of our dinner table!)

The other new item I tried out was a recipe I saw on Pinterest. After seeing a few Facebook pictures I think a lot of people made these this year! The premise is simple a strawberry dipped in white chocolate then dipped in blue sprinkles. I had to improvise a bit and use a spoon to spoon the sprinkles on the chocolate as dipping the strawberries into the sprinkles created a mushed up mess. I also learned how to make colored sprinkles when I discovered that the enormous amount of blue sprinkles I thought I had in my pantry was actually a very tiny amount. But after learning that sugar mixed with food coloring can create such a nice sprinkle mixture I don't think I'll be buying colored sprinkles again! I also think I'm going to try these again but with blue-colored melted chocolate. The sprinkles were a fun way to add the blue but they also added a grainy texture to the strawberries. Still tasted good but I think the overall awesomeness of these strawberries might be improved with just chocolate (white and blue colored) and no sprinkles. Next year!

Dinner for 2.5 was very relaxing. Marinated steak, corn on the cob, salad with homemade dressing, Deviled eggs, and patriotic strawberries for dessert. Nate and I had a relaxing time talking to each other about the day's activities and other random topics and Abby had fun going between her booster seat and the other available chair eating the strawberries and then sucking off the chocolate when she realized she didn't have to eat the strawberry to get to the chocolate!

This Fourth of July holiday may not have been filled with lots of people, noisy fireworks, or an enormous amount of activities but it was filled with lots of laughter, family togetherness, and good home-cooked food. We are truly blessed to live in a country where freedom means something. God bless America! Happy Independence Day!