Day 41 - Independence Day
I hope this blog finds all of you having a GREAT day celebrating our freedom. I started this day out with a 4-6 mile bike ride. There is good and bad here about bike rides. My first 2 miles were all downhill and I only peddled once. However the last 2 miles were up hill and I am so happy that I was able to ride my bike all the way up the hill to our house.
Our afternoon was spent going to the local pool/waterpark. The kids had been begging to show it to me. They are so excited because they can dive off the diving boards here and there isn't one at the pool we go to in MS. This is not a huge pool/waterpark but for some reason they have 12-15 life guards on duty all the time. Apparently when there is an incident there is chain of whistles that stops the entire park. It also has what they call a lazy river but it is more like a small pool with a little current and a concrete wall in the middle to float around. It was fun none the less.
We were able to grill hamburgers and have a flag cake to celebrate the 4th. The girls being the professional cooks that they are created these new fangled hamburgers that include bacon and onions right in the meat. They were delicious!!
The big finale for the day was fireworks. Since all fireworks in Montana have been banned except ones that were being run by a professional piroteer (sp?) the only choice was this one show in the city of East Helena. Thankfully yesterday afternoon one of the guys I work with invited me to bring our family and go with his family and some friends to a private ranch just outside of town in the mountains to a fireworks show (which has a professional prioteer doing the work). Of course, it doesn't get dark here until 10 or later now. So we went to my friend's house around 8 and we left there about 8:45 to go the the fireworks. Apparently this ranch is owned by a millionare from the Silicon Valley and this is his summer home. It has a main house for him and 6 other homes for his children. Each year he puts on this fireworks show for his friends and family. There were approximately 200 people there and there was this tiny lake that we all sat in our lawn chairs by. There was some music and a couple speeches and a prayer and the show began about 10:07. This was an AWESOME fireworks show. It could easily equal most of the ones we have been to in the past. It lasted until about 10:30. We just couldn't believe we were in front row seats. It was amazing to hear the booms of the fireworks bounce off the surrounding mountains. By the end we were having to lay our heads back in our chairs to watch them overhead.
There were fireman all over the place ot assure nothing caught fire and you could acutally see the guys setting off the fireworks. Now we knew this would be different because we were told to bring sweatshirts and blankets. The tempature was in the mid 50's (yes it is the 4th of July here too). We were all in shorts and t-shirts with sweatshirts or jackets. The girls sat covered up under blankets. When it was over Rebecca came up to me and said that this was like the Belhaven Singing Christmas Tree. At first I didn't understand. Then she said "Dad you know like when we got to the singing Christmas tree we are sitting in our lawn chairs shivering under blankets". All we could do was laugh. As we were walking back to the car Joshua announced firmly that "we need to turn the heat on as soon as we get in the car". By the time we got home we were quite toasty in the car. That didn't stop him from going and finding his fleece pajama pants and putting them on.
All in all it was a great day and we saw awesome things that God provided for us. It is an awesome privilege to be able to live in a country where we can worship our God freely and openly.
P.S. My wonderful husband didn't tell you that HE made the fun flag cake for us! He made the strawberry box cake and decorated it with strawberries, cool whip and blueberries. He also helped Sarah clean up the kitchen! He sweetly serves our family ! Love and miss you all!
Gretchen