American Girl

Well the 4th of July has come and gone. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. I'm always a little sad when it is over. This year we didn't do too much, we can thank the pregnancy for that. But I think we still had a great weekend. Saturday we went over to Josh and Kim's and had a BBQ, and spent a great evening with them and their family. They have a daughter that is 11 months older than Piper and they played and got along really well with each other. Their daughter had some princess shoes, and Piper thought that this was great! For those of you that don't know, Piper LOVES shoes. And I mean LOVES. A couple of weeks ago grandma Hurst bought Piper some shoes and talk about excited. Anyways, Piper had fun playing over there and so did mom and dad. It is such a blessing to have good friends to share life with.

Sunday both Piper and I were sick. We had to stay home from church while poor Aaron braved our primary class by himself. Although I'm sure it went well because the kids love him. Last Sunday when Aaron was dropping Piper off at nursery and she was having her meltdown, the kids kept asking "Where is Brother Stringer?" concerned that he wouldn't be there. It really is so cute. I'm so lucky to have someone like him. He just takes things as they come and is so patient and understanding. I'm really grateful he is like this, especially recently, since some nights dinner doesn't consist of anything nice, and the house isn't exactly up to par some days.

Monday brought us lounging around, relaxing and enjoying each others company. Then mid-afternoon, we combined lunch and dinner and had a BBQ with some fantastic food. After food coma set in, we laid Piper down for a late nap and engrossed ourselves in episodes of 24 on Netflix. After Piper woke from her nap we went down to Sandy city to their festivities. There was food booths, craft booths, all sorts of fun things. Then they had their parade in the evening, which was kind of strange, I have never been to a parade in the evening. But it was a great success. Piper really enjoyed the parade and did a good job sticking by mom and dad.

At home.
Enjoying a snow cone while waiting for the parade to start.

Being a cute, silly girl!
One of my absolute favorite things was watching my daughters face light up during the parade. This isn't exactly a picture of her with that expression, but here she is waving to some veterans who were waving at her.

One of the best parts of the parade was a refueling jet that did a low fly by over the parade. It scared Piper the first time, but the second time she handled it better, giving a tentative laugh after it flew by. This is the plane flying away after its last fly by.

After all the festivities were over, we were all a little tired, at least I was! We were going to go home and cook some s'mores in our fire pit in the back yard, but it started to rain, so that let that out. The last fun of the day involved giving Piper her glow in the dark bracelets which she thought were pretty cool. She even wanted to share and made sure that mom had one too. So we settled down on the couch cuddling and admiring our glowing jewelry in the dark. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of her and the bracelets, because she wouldn't quit looking at them long enough to get a picture.

All in all a fun weekend! It is great to celebrate Independence Day and to reflect on the kind of life that I have because of others actions and sacrifices. No country is perfect, but I am grateful to be born and raised here, with the kind of life that I have had because I am an American. What a great blessing!