God Bless the U.S.A.

Happy Belated Fourth of July Y'all!!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their fourth of July holiday. I think of the fourth of July as a time to spend with family and friends celebrating the country we live in; and always remembering those who have served and protected this country. This year was no different. With everything that has been going on in the world this year, it was definitely a year to remember that we all live in a great country and need to continue to be patriotic.

Maddie, Cori, and I floating around

This year we celebrated the fourth on Lake Weir. We had a wonderful time at the Love's house with some great friends and awesome food!!! We also took the boat out and Maddie (Travis' niece) even got to drive some.

Of course the men manned the cookers. We had wonderful chicken, ribs and pork. Along with some awesome side dishes! And don't forget the boiled peanuts.

YUM!

Here is a sample of the fireworks that the guys set off. They did a great show.

Speaking of fireworks, we learned again this year that Dutch is not a big fan of the Fourth of July. When we got home that night from the lake, we heard a loud bark that definitely was not coming from the backyard. When I opened the truck door, Dutch came running up to me (he was obviously not in the kennel in the backyard, where we left him that afternoon). We soon learned that he and Cob had pulled off the wood around the bottom of their kennel and pushed the fence out of the door. Dutch jumped our fence and did who knows what for who knows how long. We found Cob huddled under a table in the backyard. The next day our neighbor informed us that Dutch had "gotten" a squirrel in their backyard. They came over and gave him some water and he mostly stayed on the porch they said. We felt terrible that they had to witness that and luckily he didn't hurt their screen porch when he ran into it. Enough said...both dogs will be with us on the next Fourth of July.

I will leave you with some of the lyrics to one of my all time favorite songs...

God Bless the U.S.A.
If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again
with just my children and my wife,
I'd thank my lucky stars
to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
and they can't take that away.

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I wont forget the man who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.