Happy Belated 4th!

So I only just realized (yesterday) that I haven’t blogged about our 4th of July festivities! Oops. So sorry. But I’m here to tell you now.

But let me first start off by saying that Wednesday is the lamest day to have a holiday (no offense, Mr. Wednesday, but it’s true). We wanted to go to DC or Baltimore to watch the fireworks but it would have been hard because of: a) really bad traffic, b) really bad traffic, and c) really bad traffic, so it would have made for a really late night for John and he had to go back to work on Thursday. So we ended up watching our county’s fireworks show. More on that later.

We started off the morning bright and early (though not by choice) at our ward’s 4th of July breakfast and flag raising event. But we found out the night before that John was expected to be there 45 minutes early to help get the Boy Scouts ready for the flag raising. (Have I mentioned John was called into the Young Men’s presidency here? He’s the 2nd Counselor and Assistant Scoutmaster. Yeah. I know. No surprises there) So bright and early it was. But it was a pretty good activity. Before the flag raising there was a little parade for the kids to ride their bikes and it was pretty cute.
Then we had the flag raising.

We sang some patriotic songs, and had a spiritual thought before we went in and had yummy pancakes. John had even invited a friend and his family from work and they came! So it was fun to have them there and we had a good time chatting with and getting to know them.

After the activity, we went on a mini adventure to find a hobby shop for John to get the last few tools and materials he needed to get started on building his model boat. After finding most of what he needed, we decided to head over to this little hole-in-the-wall furniture liquidation store – mostly so I could see if there were any bargains on a piece I could refinish. No such luck, but look at the craziness we did find!
We gathered that hotels must just give/sell this place all their old stuff to sell off. Crazy.

(PS – That’s one of the shirts I made for John for his birthday. Cool, huh?)

After that random side trip, we headed back home so John could start on his model ship. While he worked on that, I made a few more pairs of pajama shorts. After making John’s I was thinking his looked pretty cool and I wanted some for myself ;) So I found some super cute fabric at Joann’s and while I was perusing, I found another fabric that I just HAD to get for John. You’ll see why in the picture. So here is our collection of PJ shorts.

So fun right?! And they are oh so comfy too!

So while I was creating fashionable sleepwear, John got started on his boat! I’ve been trying to document his progress. Here is his building station:
His first glued together pieces!
Hard at work
The frame is slowly taking shape…
It’s starting to look like a boat!!
And here’s how far he got before we left for the weekend of sailing. Not bad for just a few days, huh?

He’s already added to it since we’ve gotten back, so I’ll have to get some more pictures. But I’m pretty excited to see the finished product!

After dinner we headed over to the mall by the lakefront to set up chairs to watch the fireworks. We got there super early to have a place to sit…only to have the fireworks blocked by the trees. We managed to move and find a new place to see them better, so it worked out alright. And the fireworks were pretty good for a county show! There was a great finale too! We didn’t get any pictures, but we certainly had fun watching the show.

And that was our 4th of July! I hope everyone had a great 4th as well. I am so grateful for this wonderful country and the many freedoms we are so blessed to have.