Sunday, July 5, 2009

The Fourth of July

An Example of a Spider shaped firework in JapanImage via Wikipedia

Holiday??? For me the 4th of July was just like any other day except for the loud crackling fireworks that seemed to go from dinner time up until 12 AM. I went to sleep at 10 and then was awakened at 11 by Kerry when he came to bed. The fireworks were still going. Usually there are fireworks at Fort Vancouver but they were cancelled this year so I planned on watching them on the news. Apparently the city did not have the funds this year to do it and last year they lost money. When we went to church this morning the remains of the fireworks were all over in the middle of the streets.

Today in church we sang patriotic hymns and had a lesson in Relief Society on the 4th of July. I enjoyed remembering the history of the events leading up to our nations independence and talking about the men who were instrumental in leading the nation to independence.

Not only did we talk about patriots but we spoke about pioneers. Last week the kids in our ward went on a pioneer trek. Peyton and Trevin also went with the youth. I hope that they had fun. I spoke to my friend Diane who is in the Stake Young Women's presidency and she said that the trek was successful. The youth went out to eastern Washington and used handcarts on a 4 day journey across the plains there. There were many girls crying when they buried their babies (dolls) on the trail. I helped a young man in our ward by taking his names to the temple for processing the night before the stake did baptisms for the dead so he could bring his family names.

In our Relief Society there are two women who served in the armed forces. One of them came to church today with a black eye. She broke 3 bones in her face while trying to put together a hammock. She looked like she had been in a battle. She served in Iraq for a year while her sister watched her children. It was quite a transition to come back. We paid tribute to their service.

I saw Lily, Cherie, and Keith today on the internet. Lily has learned a few words since I last spoke with them. She is learning body parts like elbow, hair, mouth (she opens wide), and shoulder. A cute thing that she does is blow kisses. She also climbs all over everyone and does not stop moving. I think she takes after her Grandpa Olsen that way. She also has a new phrase..."What's that?"

1 comment:

Cherie said...

I'm liking your new background. Very cute and very you. That's sad that Fort Vancouver shut down their fireworks this year, those were always a lot of fun, but better to pay for the city employees than to pay for some boom booms (as Lily calls them).