Land of the Free 2014

-
The last time our family went to an official July 4th celebration was back in 2006.

Let's get a visual on how long ago that actually was, shall we?
DSC_0077

DSC_0099

DSC_0100

DSC_0103

DSC_0102

That was a lifetime ago.

We decided to participate in Clarksville's family event last night, and it was SO fun. The weather was glorious. Seriously, 70 and sunny and no humidity, which is just unheard of in Tennessee. We got there about 5:30 and stayed until 10:30. We ate funnel cakes and philly cheese fries; listened to some very good live music and some very, very bad live music; we laughed at Addison (who was pretty slap happy the whole time); the kids made friends and played and laughed all night. I thought to myself several times that it felt like such an iconic American family evening.

DSC_2532

DSC_2595

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Dancing for a shaved ice.
Untitled

DSC_2558

DSC_2608

DSC_2617

DSC_2646

DSC_2644

DSC_2635

These two are always tangled up in each other. If she's not running around crazy, that is.
DSC_2633

DSC_2627


And now on our actual Independence Day, we're doing n.o.t.h.i.n.g. (I feel kinda guilty about not taking advantage of the sunshine, but we're going with it). We told the kids that we were celebrating our freedom by letting them do anything they wanted all day long. Unlimited TV? Sure. As much Wii time as they can handle? Of course. Lunch? Fend for yourself.

And the adults are reading (me), binge watching Korean dramas (that would be me), working in the garden (obviously not me), catching a movie (Brian), etc.

Comments

Christine @ 12,450miles said…
Oh my goodness!!! Look at the difference between the then and now!!! Wow. It looks like a beautiful celebration though... And I adore that last photo!
3:53 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Scoop

-
Our meeting with Dr. W today was fine. Not encouraging, but fine. I don't know why I expected better news, but I think it's hard not to hope that the bad news you hear is somehow wrong; that they've somehow made a mistake. Basically, the cancer is still the same as prior to chemo. Possibly a little larger, but he said it was hard to tell. He was glad that it had not returned to my bowel or colon (because that was a large part of my initial surgery), and my chest and lungs are still clear (apparently, this is the next place the cancer would go). It does not change my stage of cancer (still 3c), and remission is still a possibility, but he said that it would be very tough to get there.  There are several more drugs that we can try, which is good, but unfortunately they each have a success rate of only 25%. It's a little too early to be considering clinical trials because hospitals who hold the trials like for the patients to have tried the more main-stream drugs firs
Read more

Late Night Ramblings

-
Image
1. Thanks to Andrea for driving me to chemo today. I'm always a little anxious on the way in and the very few times I've had to drive myself, it's been a little lonely coming home. But not today. 2. A fellow chemo patient today thought I was in my 20's. Score.  ("score" would be a term I'm borrowing from Becky ) 3. I did not wear a scarf today to chemo, and all the nurses and doctors did a double take since they didn't recognize me. So wierd. I recognize me with hair, bald, and with a little puppy fluff. 4. Dr. W. is adding Avastin , a new drug which will help prevent cancer cells from growing, to my current Gemzar routine. Good news is that it won't make me feel any worse. Bad news is that in a small percentage of patients it causes severe side effects involving blood clots, kidney failure, ulcers, and holes in your bowel. Good times. 5. I've been instructed to head directly to my primary care doctor for blood pressure medic
Read more

Scenes from the Soccer Field

-
Image
So I may not have apologized yesterday about the number of pictures, but I am definitely going to today. Because  coughcough thirty coughcough just might be excessive. And probably my family will be the only ones who look at all of them. But I don't care. :) By the way, we completely lost and did not even score a goal yet again. Rory tried really, really hard. This team was head and shoulders bigger than we are, way more coordinated than 4 year olds should be and their coach kept their A team in the entire game. Even after scoring some 15 goals. Oh, well. Rory still enjoyed herself. Which way is the goal again? Notice her position in this picture. Notice how she passed the girl next to her? No, I am not competitive at all. Not sure where the other team is. Oh, wait. There they are. See how much bigger they are? You'll notice she almost always runs with her mouth open. Either that or her tongue hang
Read more