the 4th...

4th of July weekend has always held a lot of tradition for me and my family – however, this year it also held a significant amount of weight. This year I have a friend fighting oversees and somehow that put this nation’s independence and the celebration thereof in perspective. I don’t stop and think about the sacrifices that are being made CURRENTLY to provide the American public with a safe and secure place to live where the Constitution is upheld and the rule of the land is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I live in a place of opportunity, of inspiration, of possibility and of hope – but that is not TRUE for all people and most likely would not be true for me if it was not for the many who have gone before me and willingly surrendered themselves to secure a future for this country. Praise the Lord for ALL of those!

I spent the 4th of July weekend in San Diego with my sweet family and dearest friends. I drove down late Saturday afternoon (after a headache completely DESTROYED Friday night and Saturday morning) and got to Santee JUST IN TIME to hang out with my cousin Christina and her boyfriend Daniel at my sister-in-law Jamie’s house {Madeline was also there – which is ALWAYS a plus!}. I ended up staying there all Saturday and spending the night (Kevin and I started watching School of Rock and had to see the end…AND I’m reading the Twilight series…so I was doomed to stay up way too late!). Spending the night at Kevin and Jamie’s is my new favorite - I have decided that I LOVE to wake up to my M-girl so Sunday morning was (in my mind) perfect. She started yelling just before 7:00am and was soon sitting with me on the couch watching Barney and cuddling {I could take or leave Barney, but cuddling with M first thing in the morning – NOTHING is better than that!}. We had a delicious breakfast, got ready for church, and were OUT THE DOOR before 10am! IMPRESSIVE. M’s and I rocked our sunglasses on Sunday – we’re so cute!Sunday afternoon was the annual pool party and BBQ at the Holden’s! My parents have been friends with the Holden’s and the Powell’s since before I was born – so Jenny Holden (soon to be Linthicom – he is proposing tonight! shhhhhhh!) and Anna Powell (now Garcia – happy almost 3 year anniversary friend) are my BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE!We used to dream about ridiculous things like a triple wedding, etc. but now in adulthood we live our dreams together – from marriage – to med school – to grad school – to teaching jobs – to neuro studies, etc. We are there for each other! It is an amazing gift! SO it was fabulously fun to spend time all together yet again. Steven was also there (which is always fun) and so was Stace and her husband Ryan who have been part of the group since the early high school years!(this picture is of our little group - Josh and Jenny, Anna and Daniel, Me, and Steven. I was born on March 12, Anna on April 18 and Jenny on May 24. We are each a month a 6 days apart!) I realize it is a rare and unusual thing to stay friends with the children you played with as a kid…and I do not take our friendships for granted – I am amazingly blessed. {It does help that we are all ridiculous dorks and laugh AT each other incessantly! SO FUN!} Thank the Lord for this amazing country AND amazing friends. He is good!

We spent all afternoon at the Holden's soaking up the sunshine, playing pool volleyball, having cannon ball contests, chatting, and eating WAY TOO MUCH! At approximately 8:15pm with full bellies and tennis shoes on, we walked just about a mile to Kennedy Park where we waiting anxiously for the fireworks - the HIGHLIGHT of this great holiday! Our fireworks show was anything but ordinary - we saw a few right at 9:00pm, then one at 9:04, one at 9:06 and another at 9:12. Around 9:20pm the show finally got going and although the music was almost done, our show was FAR from complete. We had fireworks until about 9:40 and let me just say, fireworks are fun even without the music!

(why are fireworks so hard to get pictures of?? I STINK at it!)Ps according to everyone I’ve talked to, Eclipse was the best Twilight book…I beg to differ…boring…I am officially losing interest in this series…we’ll see if the 4th book brings any redemption…as of now I would say, glad I read them – fun summer series – but they really aren’t THAT good!