Independence Day!

We enjoyed our Royal Wards flag raising ceremony and breakfast this morning (but didn't take a picture).

We then enjoyed a visit with family ...
Here are four of our ten beautiful grandchildren.

We played with a few pop its and small fireworks ...

We had lunch ...

 

We also relaxed and watched a bit of TV.  Later the boys tried a few more fireworks, then went to bed.

We try to not add too much to our days anymore, so there was nothing fancy today, just a relaxing day after our long day Thursday. 

It's a great day to have a great day!

 

from here

AND WE DID!

Happy Independence Day!

Our day started out with a celebration we have attended almost every year for the past 33 years (and for Terry it's been even longer).  Our church flag raising program and breakfast is always a wonderful event we love to attend, but this year it was a little more stressful since I was responsible for the program. 

 

I began several weeks ago and put together a program that many other wonderful people presented.

This is all we would have seen if others had not done their part on the program. (And many of these things were set out by other people ... what did I do?) Each did a wonderful job and presented their part perfectly.  I couldn't be more pleased!  Thank you!

 

 

We had a wonderful group of men responsible for the flag raising at the beginning of our program ...,

 

 

and again for the flag folding ceremony at the end of our program ...

 

 

We had a great choir, and a couple beautiful solos ... 

 

 

We had a few awesome Readers and Stage Hands ...

 

 

And, of course, we had a great audience ...

 

We also handed out patriotic favors ...

(a choice of flag, pinwheel, star bead necklace, or tassel)

 

 

I am grateful for all who helped and shared their talents with us.

After the program we each took our chairs to the other side of the yard for a delicious breakfast ..., that I had nothing to do with,  ;) except enjoy!

 

On our way home the kids came up with a great idea - we stopped at a special spot - a perfect place for a flag ...

 

 

Now we rest!  I mean, I get to rest after the busy work is over for this morning. I suppose I'll get up and do a few things, but I'm not sure I'll get into anything that requires much today. I do think I'll make a potato salad - that sounds delicious.

 

We plan on staying home because Terry is not feeling well, but as usual, we will be able to see a few fireworks around the area tonight.

Oh! here are a couple cute pictures of Akleigh - they stopped by for a couple minutes.  She and BJo were playing with a tassel - and lovin' it!

 

 

Happy Independence Day!

 

image from here

 

FYI - to read through the program click here.

 

 

Weekend Report

We enjoyed having BJo and Anthony with us for the week. It seemed to go by fast.

We picked up Gregory from the airport Saturday and Adena came later that night after Connor got home from basketball camp. We had a nice visit for the weekend, the last one before Gregory and Adena leave for home/California (on the 15th). They have done so much for us and we appreciate their help.

Adena made this cake - isn't it awesome! It tastes good too!

We had fun together as we celebrated the 4th of July. We played, blew bubbles, put a couple puzzles together (one was small), ate, and listened to some conference messages Sunday morning.

We watched the fireworks from our apartment deck. We didn't get to see the low ones, but there were so many high fireworks that we didn't miss much.

The celebrating continued the next morning with Adena's birthday.

They left after lunch and I started cleaning and bottling cherries. We got a couple boxes of cherries from Janet and Harris and Adena brought them and some jars and canning utensils so that we could bottle them here. I didn't want to make that the project of our last morning together so I just kept it all here and did it myself after they left. I only did 14 jars, but I'm going to have to soak my fingers in Clorox for sure.

We ended our busy day with a relaxing visit with Dennis and MaryAnn. It was good to see them again and it added to our desire for our return home, to be closer to family.