Celebrations for Independence Day were extended because July 4th fell on a Sunday this year. Festivities began on Saturday morning, July 3rd, with a pancake breakfast at our friends' house. The kids played all over the yard while the adults sat in the shade and talked. It was relaxed and pleasant, and I took zero pictures. After breakfast with friends, we came home and went swimming in our next door neighbor's pool. Miracle: I got all the way into the water! I used to love swimming, but the fun has faded over the past couple of years. As I age, I seem to become less interested in processing the sensory array that comes with wearing a swimsuit and submerging into chemically clean water. Wet suit, dry skin, sunscreen/chlorine smells, watery ears, etc. All of those sensations tend to detract from my enjoyment of swimming. But it was a family activity and the kids were so excited for all five of us to swim together, so into the water I went.
The pool had an oddly high number of flies buzzing around the surface, and they became more pesky the longer we swam. Jeff eventually devised a fly-killing method by holding the pool skimmer net above his head and dunking himself under the water quickly, trapping any flies that were on or above his head in the net as he went below the surface. I laughed my head off every time he went under with the net above his head--the sudden, collapsing way he sunk underwater was hilarious! He drowned over a dozen flies in the net with this method, though, so it worked for him. We swam for a little over an hour before coming home for a late lunch and a quiet relaxing afternoon at home.
It was testimony meeting at church on Sunday (July 4th). Rose started walking up front the minute the bishop said amen. She said a few sweet true words and returned to our bench. Then there was silence. Nobody else went up to the microphone. It was the longest stretch of testimony meeting silence that I've ever seen in this ward! Then a totally touching, inspiring thing happened: youth and kids started going up to share their testimonies. They each communicated their faith in their own ways, and I loved the variety. There are so many ways to live and apply the gospel! Even Jay got up and said something. I was a bit nervous when he started out talking about random non-gospel things, but he eventually brought it back around to the gospel by the end, haha. He said he was so nervous up there. That meeting helped me feel extra inspired and ready to tackle the new week.
After church, Jeff watched the old 70s musical 1776, all about the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence, with endless cheesy songs and dances mixed in. He gets a kick out of that movie every year. On Sunday evening, we had Jeff's parents over for an all-American dinner of BBQ pulled pork, coleslaw, corn on the cob, watermelon, potato chips, and soda. I was proud of the many side dishes we had. Side dishes are my nemesis! When they left, we watched National Treasure as a family while waiting for it to get darker outside. Then we walked two houses down to our friends' house for some fireworks. My flag dress didn't have big enough pockets to hold my phone, so no pictures of that either. The kids had fun playing and the adults talked and we weren't in bed that night until after 10pm. Fireworks flashes and bangs from all over town kept me up even later.
Independence Day, part 3 began on Monday morning, July 5th, with our traditional family 5k. We invited all cross country runners, and had one show up (go Jaime!). Dan Winger, (Jay's middle school coach), also came. Jay's foot was bothering him, so he and the girls biked the 5k course while Jeff and I ran with our two guests. We had watermelon in the front yard afterwards. That night, we attended a ward swimming activity at the city pool. It was my second time getting into a pool in three days! The pool was reserved for our ward from 7:30-9pm, and we magnanimously indulged our already-sleep-deprived kids and stayed the entire 90 minutes. Amber swam the entire short way across the pool! She couldn't do that four weeks ago when she took the swim team test. Progress! She was pretty happy with herself.
After our two late nights, we all felt quite drained. The birth of our nation was sufficiently celebrated. Yay, USA! Let's keep working on liberty and justice for ALL!
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