A Nice Relaxing Independence Day

We shared a very nice relaxing fourth of July as a family this year and it made me think about how I often take for granted the fact that our family can enjoy lazy Saturdays together. We are so fortunate to live in this country where we are blessed with freedom because our military men and women sacrifice time with their families to go and fight to protect us all. It's rather sobering to think about. Though I have always appreciated the price our military personel paid, it never really hit home until I moved to Abilene and actually met and interacted with these families who sacrifice so much. I now know these Daddys who have to miss their son's first birthday or their daughter's first day of school because of their service to our country. I've seen these amazing moms who carry on and handle all of the parenting tasks while their husband is away. For the price they all pay I am eternally grateful.

As for how we spent our fourth, we hit a few garage sales first thing in the morning and then went to our first movie as a foursome at 11:00. We saw Ice Age 3 in the Carmike Park Central 6 theatre. (The boys and I have been to several movies together this summer at the Century 12 theatre because they have a kid's summer movie club - you get to see 10 movies for $5 is you pre-buy your ticket at the beginning of the year - not a bad deal.)

Here are my guys after the show.

We ate at Chick-fil-A in the mall for lunch. They had this cute sign set up so we took advantage of the photo opp - of course.

We didn't plan to go to any of the fireworks shows because we still needed to get in bed at a decent hour to be ready for church the next day. As it turned out the fireworks got rained out so it was just as well. Maybe next year we'll venture out to see some.