Land that I Love

Happy Fourth of July!! Celebrate the independance of your country by blowing up a small potion of it! We were invited to the Holmes' house tonight to enjoy the best drive way fireworks show I've ever seen. Back home in Utah there are specific fireworks you can and can not shoot off legally, out here the rules are a lot more vague. Every city and county have their own fireworks law, Brookfield Police maintain sort of a "don't ask don't tell" policy. This lead to quite an amazing fireworks show, including many high flying and loud screaming mortars, most of which Zoe slept through. She had a great time with the sparklers though, what a cute little girl.

The Brookfield parade this morning was pretty cool too, there were bag pipe bands, vintage cars and roller blading dogs. We all loved the go-karts driven by members of the local Masonic Lodge (I'm thinking about joining just so I can get one of those hats). The best part though was the guy riding the long-horned bull. What a fun time we had. I think I've decided that the Forth of July is my second favorite holiday, with Thanksgiving being a very close third. Sometimes I feel bad calling it the Forth of July, I should be referring to it as Independance Day. The reason I don't is that I'm not totally sure if its spelt "Independance" or "Independence". I love our country. At the parade I looked around and saw such a wide variety of people, from long-haired, nasty-bearded guys to 90-year-old, wheel-chair-bound ladies. All of them got up early to watch strangers walk down the road in celebration of our nation. Doesn't something amazing happen inside when they play "She's a Grand Ol' Flag" or "The William Tell Overture", or my personal favorite, "They're Comin' to America"? No matter what part of it you're in, the USofA is amazing, from sea to shining sea. God Bless America!