Friday's Feast, July 27th

Appetizer

Describe a toy you remember from your childhood.
One of my most beloved dolls I had was a Holly Hobbie doll I re-named Annika. She was that classic cloth body with yarn hair. Her clothes were in a patchwork style with a blue bonnet (that didn't come off). She had a sweet, fair face with a few freckles. (That last sentence could have described me as a child, too!) She stayed on my bed all the while we lived in Memphis---until I was in 5th grade.

Soup

On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how observant are you?
I'm at an 8. I'm a real detail person. I've always been a person who hangs back and watches before jumping into something, too.

Salad

Where would you rather be at this very moment?
On a weekend away with my husband. but where I am now is okay, too! :-) LOVE to sit at the computer when no one else is home! ;-)

Main Course

When was the last time you learned something new?
Yesterday---I'm sure! Every day is a chance to learn and grow. One thing I am learning right now is how to work MySpace! ;-) A guilty pleasure, I guess. Sure a time waster!

I am planning on learning about autistic and ADHD kids in a early childhood classroom in the near future from a training---some formal training.

Dessert

Fill in the blank: I have ____________ but I haven’t ____________.

I have packed, but I haven't left yet. We are going to Austin to see B do her shot put event tomorrow, and I'm excited to go. :-)

I have been neglecting to leave a link to Friday's Feast website in case you want to join in, too!

Click here to see it!

More Harry Potter

Okay, I know I am a little HP crazy right now, but I came across this really good HP quiz. I was sure I'd be in Ravenclaw, but here I am in Hufflepuff! I have a friend who has pointed out to me that I am extremely loyal and dependable, so she at least woud see this is my true House.

Take that quiz! Let me know where you fit in!

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

I had to add in the more detailed results----I was a lot Ravenclaw as well! :-) Proud to have Slytherin as my lowest.

Your in-depth results are:
Hufflepuff - 16
Ravenclaw - 12
Gryffindor - 11
Slytherin - 6

I was poking around the J.K.Rowling website yesterday (waiting on Larry to finish reading the book, actually), and I came across this little bit of info about wands. She had given Harry a wand of Holly wood (ha ha Hollywood!) and then later discovered that the ancient Celts had assigned different trees for the different "months" of the year. Harry's birthday just so happened to fall into the holly month. So as far as other characters, their birthdays don't coincide except for Ron and Hermione. I love all this backstory stuff!

So I had to check it out for me and the rest of my family. My own wand would likely be made of Willow, as would (wood?) my mom's. Larry has a Hazel wand, B a Vine-wood wand like Hermione (is that possible, after all?), and J would get a Reed wand (would it be very strong?). I wonder if it really works out well for all ---not all of these seem to be trees worthy of wands.

Dec. 24th – Jan. 20th Birch (Beth)

Jan. 21st- Feb 17th Rowan (Luis)

Feb. 18th- Mar. 17th Ash (Nion)

Mar. 18th-Apr. 14th Alder (Fearn)

Apr. 15th- May 12th Willow (Saille)

May 13th-June 9th Hawthorn (Huath)

June 10th-July 7th Oak (Duir)

July 8th-Aug. 4th Holly (Tinne)

Aug. 5th-Sept. 1st Hazel (Coll)

Sept. 2nd-Sept 29th Vine (Muin)

Sept. 30-Oct. 27th Ivy (Gort)

Oct. 28th-Nov.24th Reed (Ngetal)

Nov. 25th-Dec. 23rd Elder (Ruis)

Thursday Theme---Fair

I can't remember if this picture was taken by my daughter or me---we were taking turns with the camera on this "shoot." We had painted our nails for her softball team's colors, and for the first time ever, she was able to get the same kind of shoes I did. She got a small and I got a medium in this style.

But why is this "fair" in my book? Well, all my life I have been fair-skinned. I really detested this fact of life when I was a teen---no sun bathing for me! I have had my share of sunburns, which will not turn tan afterwards, but they got back to white---or darken the freckles there already. I have tried to like being fair---and even my name---Jennifer---means "fair lady" I've been told. Tried to appreciate the beautiful porcelain skin I have. (But actually no, I am mostly pink in the face all the time!) I am better. I have to be very protective of my skin, knowing all we do now about skin cancer. So people can appreciate a fair-skinned gal nowadays.

But imagine the prayers I had when I was pregnant with my two---I wanted for them health and happiness and skin that doens't burn so easily. J came, and I got my wish---he would be a little tanner than I (thanks to Daddy's genes!). Then B came and woah! She really can tan. This picture shows her legs this May---before the pool and summertime, but during her softball season. Thank you, God, for sending my children some pigment! It will make their lives easier than mine in this one respect! ;-)

Saturday Photo Hunt (over at TNChick) will be themed Creative. I'll probably post a bit early this week---track meet in Austin coming up this weekend!

Check in at Picture This for more people who joined in the Thursday Theme. :-)

I finished!!

I did get done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Yea! (Don't look at that link if you don't want to know about the book's ending!). I am dying to talk to anyone who is ready to discuss it! On the other hand, I hate to blog about it too soon, and spoil anything for others. So I'll wait. But my enthusiasm is probably today at its height! ;-)

Today we had two more bad news items: Our car battery and the air conditioner.

The car battery was a problem yesterday. I thought we just left a door open or something. But today, as I was trying to leave---late---for a movie where I had 3 other families meeting us there, of course, the car would not make a sound as I turned the key. One good thing out of this is the little girl I was picking up, her Mom came and got us in her truck. It was nice to spend time with them (we were going to the library after the movie to pick up the prizes for the reading club), but also nice to have someone that was willing to rescue us in a dilemma. The good news on this front is that it was under warranty, and Wal-Mart replaced it for free. yea!

The other thing---the really expensive thing---is that we finally had an expert come look at our air conditioner, and it is just going to have to be replaced. Okay, is anyone keeping track here? I already don't have carpet in the living room and my bedroom, no dishwasher, no dryer and now this!! Ug! Not to mention the toilet filling up extremely slowly in our master bathroom, my horrible tooth, and the light bulb broken off in my living room ceiling fan. I could go on, but these are enough to get me some sympathy, right? ;-)

So everything in the house seems to be falling apart. As I was putting B to bed just now, she said, "Mamma, I think all these things falling apart kinda bring us together. And I think things will be okay." She's right---Things will be okay. We can survive. We are a team working together. God is in control---so maybe we need to be humbled a bit for some reason? I have felt like my 20s were all about humbling me. Maybe the lesson continues into the 30s?

More income is on the horizon---I'm working an extra day this coming school year. I even have a raise in my wage. We can get this stuff under control---eventually.

Another good thing about today was discussing the Deathly Hallows with a teen volunteer at the library. I was so excited, I told the librarian that I saw her quoted in the paper, about Harry Potter books. So she and the teen girl talked to me about that a bit, and then I blurted out, "I finished the book this morning---have you finished? I want to talk about it!" So the librarian made her exit (not finished yet, she said), and I talked to this girl about the book for at least 15 minutes. :-) Just so fun!
;-)

So if anyone wants to discuss any of it, e-mail me or leave a comment! :-) Or better yet, call me!

Harry Potter Progress

I am into chapter 22 of the book! And I just read what the Deathly Hallows are. Heeheehee!

Another update . . .

Now that I alarmed everyone, it turns out that the staff from the camp was able to go get our kids and take them to Camp Bandina at about 8:30 last night. So J wasn't sleeping in a weird place or anything---they got to their destination just fine. But I didn't know until just a few minutes ago!

As Larry explains it (he's been there three times recently!), the camp itself is on a hill, up on a bluff from where the river is. Cabins and activities are all up there, and they shoud be safe while at camp, no matter how much it rains. And if the waters were to reach the kids---well, they'd need an ark to survive!

There are about 340 campers (I think with adults included). We have 20 kids there, and about 6 adults from our church.

Best (series of) Shot(s), Monday

This series of shots is my attempt to show B doing her shot put. Larry and B went to practice---we met him after work one evening. You can tell it was a day that we got some rain. My camera has a feature where it will take a series of three shots in like a second and a half. It's cool! This was at the beginning of the practice, so it might not have been the best throw, per se, but it was my best shots.

Can you see my shadow in this shot? Heehee! I love this series because the shot is in the air on this one. I'll be posting this weekend about the State Tournament, and how B did. No matter what, it will be fun---we had a friend offer a hotel room in Austin (with his points), so we are going to tour Austin a bit. B even suggested we hit a few county courthouses as we drive over (she knows me well). Just us and our girl! it'll be great. I'm looking forward to it. :-)

Camp Update

If you haven't read the post below, read it first---I guess!

After leaving for church camp later than anticipated because of creeks and rivers that were over the road, the campers got over to the area and still couldn't safely get to camp! Can you believe that? So what do you do with 20 kids and three vans and a trailer of luggage? Well, they were off to Medina Children's Home in Medina, TX. The kids from our church are going to stay there tonight, but all our adult driving chaperones were driving back here tonight. Some of our adult chaperones that are going to camp and staying are already there---they had to be there Saturday to get training before the campers arrived. The Children's Home staff will drive them to camp tomorrow. Huh! I hope so anyway!

Medina Children's Home is a Church of Christ-run home for kids and even mothers with kids who have no other means to support themselves.

When I was in college at A&M, I went to two different children's' homes on "weeklongs" we called them. We college students would go right before and right after the spring semesters, for a week (duh). During the day, we would do odd jobs around the camp---repairs, cleaning out, cooking, etc. When the kids got home from school, we were there to play with the kids and entertain them. We slept in the houses with the house parents. It was fun, and heartbreaking at the same time. I went up to Morrilton, Arkansas, twice, and to Foster's Home for Children in Stephenville, Texas.

It must have been after Larry and I were already engaged that this little girl in my house watched me watch Larry out a window. He was probably out there playing football or something. This little girl was about 6, and she said to me, "He's in your heart, isn't he?" Awww! Why yes, he is, little observant one! ;-)

At any rate, I am wondering what J is doing tonight, who's watching over him,when he'll actually get to camp, if he's behaving himself, whether he's a little bit scared or uncomfortable, and just that he's okay! Say a little prayer for him!

Sunday Thoughts

I just sent J off to church camp with 19 other kids. He seemed really excited to be going. He's been two years before, so this is not new to him, and he and I took care to really pack him well.

(This picture seems to paint a different picture, though!)

They had a delay right from the start, though! We got to church this morning expecting the kids to load up after a devo in the annex. They were going to leave about 10 a.m., but people at camp called and said they didn't want the kids to arrive until later in the afternoon. Apparently, the roads to camp were flooded over after some heavy rain yesterday! (This is not good for an already worried mother to hear.) So off they went after lunch instead, about 1:00.

Yes! We did get the Harry Potter book at a midnight release "party" at a Hastings here. Very fun. There were some people dressed up, but J and B chickened out with their costumes. J asked, "Can you drive by the windows before we park?" He looked in the store and decided that there were too few others wearing costumes, so he took off his Black grad gown and witch's hat. B followed his lead. She had been wearing an old Darth Maul cape (with hood) and was carrying a broom. They looked good, but oh, well! Inside there were some kids dressed up, a lady reading Tarot cards and maybe some fun activities we missed. We only got there at 11:30.


After leaving the store, we read about one chapter before turning in for the night---I just can't stay awake if I'm being read to after midnight! Imagine that! I got up early and commandeered the book and read through 8 chapters yesterday. It's good! I'm already enjoying it. My favorite character is Ginny Weasley. She's smart and spunky. I was hoping she would be involved with Harry, Hermione, and Ron as they start on the tasks that Dumbledore left Harry. We'll see!


We talked with a teen at church who is a big HP fan, and she said she went to Wal-Mart and just read the last chapter. Doh! I told her not to tell me anything!! But she did tell me a little bit!


Larry's Dad seems to be holding steady. I have no news there. Larry didn't go up there yesterday like I thought he might----we were dealing with a leaky air conditioner yesterday morning! Larry and B got up in the attic. Ug! I will have to try to come up with some money for a pro to go look at it eventually. For now, it's not leaking. Seems like insulation is getting in the drip tray and clogging things up! But anyway, Larry didn't go to his Dad yesterday.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt, July 21st

Today's Hunt theme is tiny. I thought of this picture right away when I thought of the theme! When B was born, in 1998, she was about 2 and a half weeks early. I don't know if it was because of that or what, but her feet seemed really tiny for her. Or maybe I was already used to J's almost three-year-old feet, I don't know. I LOVED her little baby feet. So I took this picture with my film camera, and hoped for the best until I got the pictures back. Just perfect in my opinion! ;-)

Visit TNChick at her blog, and see others' take on the theme of Tiny. Next week's theme is Creative. You know I have a lot of that going on around here! ;-)

This next week is without J---he's off to church camp tomorrow morning and will come home next saturday afternoon. Whew! I'll miss him, but he is going to have a blast.

And in honor of my anniversary yesterday, I present a photo I scanned in just now. This was at our wedding reception, July 20, 1991. I was a baby of 20 years old, Larry, just 21. I DO believe we have made it this long. I didn't have a doubt then, and I don't now. What I can't believe is all the stuff that has happened since then, how our plans have all gone awry (ha!), how much we did not know, how much we would have changed after these 16 years.

Friday's Feast, July 20th

Today is my 16th Anniversary!
Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how much do enjoy watching sports on television?
4---I like some sports, but they usually take too much time up for me!

Soup
If you could completely memorize any one work of fiction, which one would you pick?
Hmmm . . . I might memorize all 7 books in the Harry Potter series . . . should I pick something more grown-up?

Salad
What is your favorite breakfast food?
Grits with ham on the side! ;-) Or biscuits with sausage gravy! I get excited about food.

Main Course
Name something fun you can do for less than $10.00.
We've been going to the dollar movies---that's $3 for me and the kids! That still leaves $7 for popcorn and a drink---maybe I could get a small? But also, Larry won 2 movie passes to these kids' dollar movies, so it's only been a $1 for us to go since he won those. Sw--eet!

Dessert
How long does it usually take you to fall asleep?
I have heard that it takes on average 7 minutes to fall asleep. When I put the kids to bed, and if B does't want to be all alone, I tell her I'll check back in 7 minutes. Usually, she's asleep by then!

But as for me, I like to get in bed and read until I am sleepy. This amount of time really varies depending on what's been going on in the day. On average, I'll guess 20 minutes. But anyone can tell you, I will drop off on the couch when I get still after 9:00.

Thursday Theme---Drip

These two shots are on the opposite sides of the temperature ranges! One icy (January), one hot (but not too hot---May). I love to try to capture water in motion, so to get a drip coming off this icicle is a good thing. I don't really like all the power lines in this shot, but it's my backyard!
This other shot was on water day at school (where I teach). He had been playing in the sprinkler, and was dripping wet.

Be sure to check out others' interpretations of the theme "Drip" over at Picture This. Please leave me a comment!

This Saturday Photo Hunt will have a theme of "tiny." Come back by and see what I find for that theme!

Best Shot Monday----The Pool

Here's my Best Shot this week. It's a very typical of what we're doing on a free day. J was vey pleased I got him in mid-air. Big splash was coming next!

Leave me a little comment if you came by and looked at my picture!

Check out more best Shots on Picture This.

The Regional Track Meet

Here's the wrap-up of Saturday's big event.

B and Larry were up in Waco early, but as it turns out, Friday night's events got rained out, and B didn't run until I got there on Saturday. Yea! It all worked out.

This morning, it was still drizzling rain. The kids ran in this rain and jumped in it---carried on as normal. J and I camped out under a big umbrella.

Here is her name in lights, running in lane one.



The rain pretty much stopped by the time B's running event came along. Yea! But the track was pretty wet still.


Get set . . . go! I love how all ther ponytails are flapping in the wind.


You can tell she's really tired in this picture. Go Bess !

The announcer guy had the crowd clap for her and cheer her in as she rounded her last turn and finish the race. I think we all could see every girl in the race was working very hard.



Here are the results---she was 7th place. She did really good for herself---she was running right along on her pace. But those other girls were just really fast! B is at the young end of her age bracket this year.



Here is the gold medal event! B threw the 6 lb. shot 9 feet something. Yea B!!!!









Here's Lar---we're wating for the long jump event and eating a bit of snacks.


Here's my best shot of the long jump. It looks like she's falling backwards, but she's still moving forward, actually. Her jump was 6 feet, 8 inches.







Here is J waiting. Those who are not competing are waiting a lot. I brought a magazine to keep us busy. Well, me busy, anyway. I brought my MP3 player to keep him busy. He's also reading a book called Not as Crazy as I Seem.


And now it's time to go home. B is SO happy to get her gold medal. She even got a ribbon for her 7th place finish in the mile run. It was a sucessful day!


We also all went to the hospital that evening to see Larry's Dad. He's doing okay, but they decided he does not have an intestinal blockage, which means there's no explanation for him not eating. He looked so weak and frail.

Larry came on home with us and will go back tomorrow, Monday, to meet with all the parties concerned about what to do next. It's time for the tough decisions.

Friday's Feast, July 13th

Appetizer

What is your favorite fruit?
I like strawberries a lot! But they are not always in season, so dried cranberries have to get a mention (I usually buy Craisins brand).

Soup

Who is someone you consider as a great role model?
I think Bill Gates is a pretty good one. He started going with his passion at a very young age. He worked hard and made a business for himself. Now he's filthy rich, still working on new technology. But also admirable is the charity work he and his wife do with their money. I love that he's into innovative schools and helping people get healthy in remote parts of the world.

Also in this category is George Lucas---young passion, working hard, success. I am always pointing out George Lucas to J, who has creative vision and so much potential himself.

Salad

If you were to spend one night anywhere within an hour of your home, where would you choose?
My first thought is Brenham, TX, and I have heard great things about the Ant Street Inn. Brenham is a small town in central Texas, and their biggest claim to fame is the Blue Bell Creameries. Blue Bell ice cream is having its 100th birthday this year. You can take a tour there. The town itself has antique shops and other small-town stores and festivals throughout the year.

Main Course

Name something you do too often.
Sit here at my computer, obviously! I started a MySpace page and have been goofing around with that late into the evening.

Dessert

Fill in the blank: I really like ___________ because ____________.

I really like Harry Potter books and movies because they are a complete fantasy and break from reality, and the characters are so good and I care about them! It is killing me that people are talking about Hermione being the character that gets killed off. I have it all planned out---Harry ends up defeating Voldemort, marrying Ginny, and then he's part of a warm loving family. Ron and Hermione end up together, too, and these guys can be fast friends forever. Just about any other character can die in the book 7, and I'll be okay. But not those 4!

Harry Potter video

I thought this was a really good YouTube video. The three teen actors from Harry Potter are answering questions unscripted, and I just love how normal they are, giggling and just talking off the cuff. It's 10 minutes long, if you care to watch it!

I talked to Larry this evening, and we talked for 20 minutes about the movie. (His dad, by the way isn't able to talk so they can understand him very well, but he's okay for now.) B thought it was a bit scary in parts (it is rated PG-13). Larry and I both have recently read the book, so we had to hash out what was changed and whether we thought it was good or not for them to choose the scenes they did.




If you've seen the movie, comment!

JSA and HJP

First and foremost, simmering behind what's right in front of me, is my heart for Larry and his dad. Larry's dad was put into the ICU yesterday, and Larry is away with Bess 100-something miles away visiting the hours he's allowed to. He is in his 80s, and about 2 weeks ago, he had a stomach bug. He got some better, but he never did get back to a normal appetite. He was going downhill. After a doctor's visit on Monday, his bloodwork came back on Wednesday and the numbers were not good. The doctor wanted to see him again, so he went to the doctor's office, and an ambulance took him from there right to ICU.

Larry went on up there and since B was supposed to run up there on Friday and Saturday in a track meet, she went on with him---her choice. So half my family is away from me, and I'm thinking about them all the time.

It's hard to think about what might happen in the end with all this. We just know things have not been very normal for L's Dad for a long while. Larry took his papers up ther that show he is the medical power of attorney. Yes, it's that serious! Then again, we might see a good recovery if they can get him hydrated and some nutrition in him.

On a more fun note, this was our day to go see the new Harry Potter movie. Since we knew we'd be apart, and we knew Lar and B couldn't sit at the hospital the whole time they were up there, we both thought we'd take the kid we have in our care to the movies today despite the current situation. They got to go to an 11:00 show up there, and J and I went at 11:30 here.

As the house lights went down and the big WB floated towards me, and I listened to the opening notes of the movie----I was just excited to be there! I had been anticipating this movie with the kids for weeks, and it was finally here!

I read the book for this one---Book 5---last month. I now wish I hadn't! almost. :-) I sat through this one thinking about how they left out great chunks of story and characters---they always have to! They condense the book into the movie format, and it's not the same. But I did enjoy the movie. I enjoyed that Harry is getting older. I really enjoyed the Weasley twins, and Ginny Weasley---she will have a bigger role next movie! But they were already hinting at the greatness of Ginny in this movie, and I loved it. She's my favorite character. Our names being homophones----that's maybe a reason?

I have to finish up here. I'm sure I have some more thogughts on HP! I plan on doing some HP websurfing tonight! ;-)

Thursday Theme----Heat

I hope my sister doesn't kill me for posting this shot! She looks good, actually, but you can see it's HOT.

I considered all the hot spots in my life---B's track meets, recess at school, at the pool, in the yard, the fire fighter's training school in town, etc. And let me be clear----I do not take the heat well! I live in the air conditioning whenever I can. I don't really like the summer sun; I burn really easily.

Lots of my shots were of me and my family trying to beat the heat. Jumping in the pool, or sitting in the shade. I thought these shots didn't really capture all the heat my part of the world has to offer!

But I found this shot from last year's 4th of July parade that fits the bill exactly. We were sitting in front of the funeral home for our view of the Granbury parade. I suppose this is before the hour-long parade had even started, and my little niece had already lost her patience. And how hot is my sister? :-)

Check out more Thursday Themes at Picture This by Tracey at Club Mom. :-) And please leave me a short comment! I love to go visit other's blogs and see blogs from all around the world.

Our awesome Star Wars adventure

I had to share what we saw at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. We are all Star Wars fans in this family, me included. Mom heard about their special exhibit of "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" and thought we ought to take the kids. Since we were visiting with them for the 4th, we went the next day to Fort Worth (an hour's drive or so). I am so glad Mom and Dad treated us to the museum. We had to have tickets with specific times for both the SW exhibit and the IMAX movie.

This first picture is my Mom and B checking out some non-Star Wars displays. They are renovating the buildings, so they didn't have their whole collection out.











This one of my dad and J is in front of the Land Speeder. I should have taken another picture to show the landspeeder better.

J is using a fancy headset device that told about the different exhibits.

Here are some images of the things I liked best. These are the real costumes from the movie! It made me a little star struck.

This isn't Chewbacca, but two of the Wookies from Episode 3.



Yoda and the Jedi training ball.









They had a sort of hovercraft that anyone could try out. It used a big blower on the back to move from side to side. That big blower was exactly like the ones that blew out house dry in May.




The kids had fun, mostly going in circles!



















The next one is of the Millennium Falcon, a model they used for shooting scenes. It was about 5 feet across.









C3-PO, of course. I had a hard time getting some of the shots because of the crowds. It was SO crowded, this day after a holiday.








The 3 parts of Darth Vader's' mask. One of the most anticipated moments in my Star Wars life was watching that mask come upon Annakin Skywalker in Episode 3, making him be Darth Vader like I grew up with in the later episodes. It had to happen, but I was sad anyway. All through that movie, I tried to will Annakin to make a slightly different choice so he wouldn't end up as Darth Vader, basically killing Padme and leaving his children as orphans.






This last one is B and J and Mom. At the end of the exhibit, there were many hands-on stations. In one, you could build yourself a robot with available parts and make him move along a path. (It was too crowded and we were too hungry to wait for that busy station!) In this one, you could find the center of gravity for your little creation.

As we came out of the SW exhibit, they had a little show about what our real life robots can do. It was pretty interesting, but we were really hungry!

After this we went out of the museum and ate some Whataburgers. The cafe in the museum was super crowded, so we left. It was raining all this day so all this walking back and forth from buildings to cars was getting me all wet. We had 5 people and two umbrellas. Not a good plan!

The afternoon was our IMAX experience, and it was fun to be off our feet and watching a show about special effects in movies. After that I drove myself and the kids back to Bryan, stopping off to see Larry's Dad for a few minutes.

Best Shot Monday----Hood County Courthouse

This is my Best shot of the Week, I think!

I have a lot of pictures of this courthouse in the daytime, but nary a one at dusk. It's my hometown courthouse, so I've been hanging around the square around the courthouse since 1982. I like the complimentary colors of the orange and the blue.

I was with the kids on the 4th in Granbury, so here are some more sights we saw:

The Fourth of July Parade

In the evening, we went down to the square and watched Poppa's band play a concert. His band plays Big Band music.

There was a rain storm that came through in the evening. The sky looked scary, as you can see in a couple of pictures here. But it didn't rain on top of us very much, so the concert went on.

Here are the guys playing their instruments.

And then there were fireworks. We stayed downtown and watched from the place where the concert was. I was playing around with the "fireworks" setting on my camera.

This last one was the finale!

Happy Birthday, America!