Happy July 4Th!

We have had a wonderful time celebrating this weekend! To top it all off, John just so happened to have these past 2 days off so we had a holiday that wasn't even remotely effected by police work. I love it when that happens!

Last night we took the girls down to the fireworks with John's family. It's the 7th year that John and I have gone there as a couple so it's always nice to kind of revisit that. It always brings back memories of being young and in love! They had a really cheesy little carnival but the girls enjoyed it so it was fun. Brooke got to ride some rides and eat some junk food so she was happy. We watched the fireworks and Brooke was mostly afraid of them (big shock, I know!) and almost fell asleep towards the end. As for Adrienne, she sat there saying, "Ooh!" and she did not want to take her eyes off of them. It was precious! I think I watched the look on her face more than the actual fireworks and the grand finale was seeing HER light up, not the sky. It was just funny to me how each of the girls personalities shined through in how they took the fireworks... One timid and one afraid of absolutely NOTHING. Lol

Today was a really nice day... We had John's family and my family over for a big cookout and pool party. We were just saying today that we really love how both sides of our family all kind of work together to form one big family. Everyone gets along and there is no "my family" or "his family." It's very special! We all go to church together, too, so that kind of helps I think. It was a really carefree afternoon with some awesome food, beautiful weather, and even better company. I absolutely LOVE to use our home for parties and I totally feel in my element when I'm cooking for and serving people.

As for tomorrow, my mom and I have a very special day planned (with the girls). My dad's in Puerto Rico and John has to work tonight so we're going to take a day trip to a little town about 2 hours from here and do some shopping and have lunch at the amazing Cheesecake Factory. I'm mostly excited to be with my mom though!

Happy 4th of July, everyone. Let us not forget the brave men who made this day possible for America and those that are fighting even now to secure our way of life. What an amazing sacrifice!