Fourth of July

2020 hasn't been the best year....and the morning of the fourth I was still in depression mode since it seems to be more and more likely that we will return to school, virtually.  :(

We still planned an epic cook out with hamburgers and boudin, pasta salad, spinach dip, and of course red, white, and blue cake, but it wasn't until later that evening....that everything truly came together.  We headed to our neighbor's house for fireworks.  Yes, yes, we know these neighbors, and we definitely knew the potential they had to throw a great party, but we were still unprepared for the magnitude of the fireworks display.  It was truly the BEST show I had seen in a loooonnnngggg time (maybe ever)--right from the roof of their home.  Karston got to participate, and during the finale, we watched all the firework engineers run for their lives behind the hot tub (which is also on the roof) which was a little scary, but oh so epic.  What I learned form this?  We aren't done as a community, a people, a country...we live in the most epic and awesome country known to man, and it is the people, the courageous people who crossed over a line in the sand, knowing that certain death was imminent, but at the same time knowing their cause of freedom was bigger than their own personal lives.....it is still in us.  So, whether it be pandemics, a new kind of teaching, us just missing each other, racism, rioters, those looking to change democracy and history....  Those that crossed over the line, that is still in US, and yes....I learned all of this from a most energized and patriotic neighborhood fireworks show.  :) (And yes, Dixie ate the rest of the cake while we were sleeping.)