stars and stripes

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Ours was lovely. We started that morning off by driving a few minutes up the road to watch the parade our city does. It was fun watching Karina and how into she was this year. We enjoyed the company of sweet friends too. Flags were everywhere, on peoples shirts, decorating the cars, held high by the color guard, being waved by our little one and even the horses were all dressed up in red, white and blue. It was a wonderful time though by the end of it we were beginning to melt a little with the heat from the day. But we headed on home and jumped in the pool. After that we ate a yummy lunch in the shade on the patio and then we all took naps so that we had plenty of energy for the fireworks that night.

SO here is a little glimpse of the parade through my camera lense.....

Later that night we headed down to a marina not too far away to get settled into our spot along with all our family and friends for the great fireworks display. We decided to go a little early to avoid tons of traffic and it was really really nice to sit and visit with everyone before the show started. I was able to snap a few shots of the setting sun while we waited too. It's always so much fun and we even had the blessing of one of my sweet cousins who was visiting from out of town. You will see she is one of Karina's favorite people now as is shown in the pictures of them. :)

Maddy (my cousin) and Karina sitting on the back of my dad's old 66 Chevy truck ready to watch the fireworks! And some of Karina's precious cousins in the pictures below taking there seats.

The guys enjoyed a drink or two, but we ladies had our drinks as well. :) Keep scrolling...

Oh but I can't forget the sparklers! The kids were so ready for these and my dad was ready for the kids. He even had a great little set up with a torch to light them with. He really is always prepared! Man I love my dad. And the kids loved him too. He must have had at least 100 sparklers!

This bottle of tea cracked me up. My dad brought these too of course. :)

And the show begins!

The little girls loved dancing to the music over the radio. So sweet!

While Karina enjoyed sitting with Nana, Ethan had a great seat with Pappy. Yeah Ethan had his own ear protection.

It was an awesome show and I am so blessed to be an American and live in this great country. It is not perfect by any means. And there is so much we need to work on. I know we might not always have the freedoms we know now, but I pray that even then we will look to God and the freedom He gives, for only that freedom will last. So when we think of the stars and stripes lets not only recall our lovely flag that stands for so much. Let us be drawn to the One who made the STARS and the One who bore our STRIPES so that we can be called sons and daughters of HIS!