Happy Independence Day

I hope each American is enjoying your freedom and remembering those who sacrificed so we could enjoy our backyard cookouts, parades and fireworks.

Each Independence Day, we host a gathering of friends and family for fellowship and food. We typically watch The Patriot with Mel Gibson, but we were thrown off this year. We always start the day with the local parade, but a downpour arrived about 30 minutes before parade start time and didn't end till about 30 minutes after scheduled start time, so it was cancelled. It was disappointing, but we needed the rain.

We still had our annual cookout. I meant to get a pic of Army of Dad with his new barbecue grill, which is a belated Father's Day present. He is very proud of it and all its bells and whistles. We had 10 adults here, including us, so we were a little busy cooking and I forgot. We did burgers and brat wursts and of course we had potato salad, chips and assorted other goodies. It was nice, but bittersweet. My buddy, RC, is moving to Phoenix in a couple of days. So, I have been pretty choked up off and on all day.

Here is me and RC. He always makes the Bill Cosby "eat your pudding" face for pictures instead of smiling, I'm not sure why.

Don't you love my Red, White and Brew t-shirt? AoD had one, too.

Of course, for our family, the Second Amendment is one we celebrate on the Fourth. Two shots of AoD and his gun-loving buddy.

AoD's buddy's baby and my baby.

Patriotic little kiddos. Pretty darn sweet. We'll be going to see the fireworks presented by our local Kiwanis club at UNT in a little while. Another annual tradition. I really hope the kids cherish these memories as much as we cherish making them. I also hope that they remember the lessons we teach them about the flag and our great nation and how it was formed. Already, Stinkerbelle loves flags and notices them everywhere. This is her favorite dress. Hot Rod has been learning about our history and why our country was founded.

God Bless America!