Festivities of Friday the Fourth

Ahh, the 4th of July. Is there any holiday that is really more fun than America's birthday? I mean if you think about it, is there any other holiday where people get together and have parades, BBQ's, and then after all the eating and socializing is done, proceed to blow things up? I can't think of one. On a more serious note though, is there another holiday that we as a society take for granted more than the 4th of July? At one point last night, as I listened to our national anthem, I caught myself reflecting on just how lucky I am to be an American. The 4th isn't about the fireworks, the BBQ's, or the parades, although that is what it has become to most of us. It is, and should be, about the celebration of our freedom; that we recognize and appreciate that no other people in the history of the world has had the same freedoms that we have. Do we really appreciate all that we have? Since I'm on my soapbox...make sure you vote this year. It's one of our greatest priviledges, and it's frustrating to hear that about half of us don't care enough to participate.

Ok...I've said my peace on that. So yesterday was actually pretty fun. This has been our second 4th of July in Houston, and while we still miss getting together with the Parkinson's in Provo and going to the Freedom Festival Parade, we still managed to have fun. We spent part of the morning swimming in one of the many community pools nearby. Rachael and the boys are frequent swimmers, and Connor is actually getting really good at it. He's fearless too, which is both a good and a bad thing. At this particular pool, there is a pretty decent sized water slide. Well, Connor went down this slide all by himself probably a dozen times. Here's the video...along with a few other pictures.

That evening we went over to Kingwood Country Club, where Rachael works, and went to their carnival. It was a lot of fun, although Connor was being grumpy for the better part of it. I'm not sure why he was grumpy, I mean we were outside, there was one of those bouncy slide things, and even Clutch, the Houston Rockets mascot, came was was passing out shirts, etc. to all the kids. The only way we could calm him down was to jump in a golf cart and drive around the golf course for like 20 minutes looking for animals. He's a funny boy. Luckily, we saw some ducks, storks, and two baby racoons, which was really neat.

As for the rest of the evening, when Connor did finally settle down, we had a lot of fun. The country club offered a BBQ buffet of chicken, briscket, and hot dogs, as well as apple cobbler and cookies. Rachael and I ate our fair share, but Connor and Cody shared a hamburger bun. The highlight of the evening was of course the fireworks, which started a little after 9 pm, and which were pretty nice. That concluded our evenings festivities, except for the drive home which unfortunately took way to long as we had to battle every other joe schmo for a place on the highway

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