Celebration for the Fourth

First I want to take a moment to reflect on the amazing freedoms we have here in the beautiful United States of America. We just celebrated Independence Day, the day we remember those brave men who fought- and those who died- for us, as well as all of the women who helped the cause and aided in the revelution in 1776 so we could be permitted such freedoms. And I would like to thank all of those men and women who are still serving our Country so that we can keep those hard won freedoms. Our Heroes of the armed forces... the people who knowingly put their lives and personal freedoms last to ensure that we maintain ours. God bless you all.

We had a three day weekend here, and we have been taking full advantage of an extra family day.

We have lots of farms around our house and one of them has acres and acres of berry fields. So we decided to go blueberry and blackberry picking! We had a really fun time too!

Here we are heading out to the back fields. This property went on and on, it was so pretty and quiet. And I think Simone ate as many berries as she put in the bucket!!

Look how ambitious we were starting out...three buckets!

And an hour later....

It doesn't look like much, but I tell you we have a lot of berries! We didn't fill all three buckets but we have enough berries for the week, plus we made a real nice pie.

The farm also has very cute brown cows. We left very full of berries and very tired from all of the walking! Good thing there was a cool breeze.

And of course what would a holiday weekend be without family and friends? We had a fun cookout with some of our family and our dear friends.

Oliver was just exhausted from all of the activities, but of course had to be in the midst of it all anyway!

And our friends...

We are so lucky to have great friends that moved here from Florida. It is like having more family here and the girls get along so well.

And Simone's Auntie.

We watched the fireworks from our upstairs deck. It was so cool to see them all around. Plus our neighbors put on a great show of their own! It was a very fun evening!

So that is how we celebrated the Fourth of July.

We have an odd history with the 4th too, Adam and I met on the 4th of July, ummm lets see...11 years ago.

We've had some losses and some personal gains all on the fourth too. We will always remember the loss of our dear friend and neighbor Dan (and the best darned BBQer in the South!).

And yesterday we welcomed the newest member of our family, the birth of a new baby boy by Adam's cousin. Congrats to the whole family on that!

I hope you all are celebrating with family and friends and...

Happy Birthday USA!