Independence Day

On Saturday (the 3rd) we took a nice little stroll on the sidewalks of Huntington Beach where a festival was going on and we saw a freaking AWESOME T-Rex puppeteer do his thing as an advertisement for this. (My camera was COMPLETELY dead! So mad). We also watched some b-boy street dancers, to whom Malia donated a dollar. And we enjoyed solicitors and vendors getting on our ever-loving last nerve, convinced that their obnoxious tactics would cause me to dig into my empty wallets to purchase ridiculously chintzy crap for insane amounts of money.

But we don't live in Utah anymore, so when the 4th of July happens upon a Sunday, there isn't much we can really do that we feel is "Sabbath-appropriate." After all, I do have love and reverence for my country... but I love and revere my Savior and my covenants more, so what're you gonna' do.

Well, we went to Church, and came home. The girls napped. We had dinner. Exciting, hey?

But that didn't stop us from three of our most favorite traditions:

Festive holiday foods

Dressing up in our red-white-&-blues

and fireworks!!!

(we watched them from the lawn of a great-&-spacious Church down the street where there is a decent view of the show at the military base across the way)

And when your child is so exhausted that they choose staring into oblivion like a zombie over actual sleep, you know it's been a good day...


And then the hubby and I topped it off with my annual viewing of "1776" and some hot chocolate chip cookies (pardon the constant disrespect of the 3rd commandment in the following clip....).

I like to see a man
proud of the place in which he lives.
I like to see a man live
so that his place will be proud of him.
~Abraham Lincoln~