Independence Day

 While we missed Victoria this year for our celebrations and I know she missed us, she also has been happily preparing for the BYU I Dance Alliance tour they will embark on at the end of the month. Meanwhile, we enjoyed going to the Good Morning USA parade in downtown Plymouth. Kade joined us this year to see some of his previous marching band and color guard friends marching. Downtown Plymouth is always so fun to attend a parade at with its small-town feel. Even though we weren't there very long, I always enjoy just a little classic 4th of July patriotism in this nostalgic parade. 

The opening of the parade.

Classic cars

Fife and Drum

Classic bikes

Someone's patriotic lawn in the neighborhood!

After the parade, we had to move quickly to get things ready for a few hours at Island Lake Recreational Park. Kade had invited Isa, who had never been on a paddleboard before. It was for that reason that we made the extra effort, or I should say Jason made the extra effort, to carry the extremely awkward and heavy paddleboard 1.5 miles to the lake since when we arrived we discovered that all the parking lots were under construction, except for the one by the lake, which was full, and the one where we parked a 30 minute walk away. The park attendants wouldn't even let us drop off our stuff at the first parking lot. So we ate our lunch at a picnic area before gathering what we could to make the 30-minute walk in our beach shoes. Lucky for Austin, he had decided to bring his bike and rode around the area for most of the time. The rest of us really did have a good time at the lake, despite the long and uncomfortable walk there. When it was time to leave to make it to the Remington's for a BBQ, the first parking lot wasn't blocked off anymore, so Austin rode his bike to get the truck for us (it's a good thing he has 20 hours of driving practice in!) There was still a limited number of parking spaces so I had to guard one so he could park there. It worked out fine and I personally didn't mind the walk, even though I had heavy water bottles in my beach bags that were also loaded with towels. 

It was overcast, which was nice!

Erik's and my view of Jason from our inflatable dragon.

Erik carried this dragon for the whole walk so we had to put it to good use!

Isa got her ride on the paddle board and enjoyed it!

Jason, Erik, and I had to make use of it as well for all that carrying!

Austin was so glad he brought his bike! I was too because we didn't have to leave as early to walk back to the truck.

We enjoyed good company and food at the Remingtons and got to know some new people who will be in our ward. They realigned some ward and stake boundaries since our ward has been withering away and the Livonia ward in the Farmington Hills stake is huge. They had about a 1/3 of our ward from before when they realigned 3 years ago, but they gave us back about a 1/3 of that, plus a different section we didn't have before. So, we reacquainted with some old friends and met some new ones. Kara wanted to do the fireworks from our cul-de-sac as we did 2 years ago since it's a good place to fire them off, so everyone came to our yard as dusk arrived. It was another amazing show and our neighbors enjoyed it too! 

I made star cookies and a cowboy caviar.

Football time!

The beginning of the fireworks show.

Look closely and you'll see Mother Nature's fireworks in the clouds. It looks like a rainbow!

I appreciate the sacrifices made for our country and hope that we can all continue to remember that and make the sacrifices necessary to keep it "the land of the free" and maybe even improve it as we see some things declining. God bless America!

Here are some pics of Victoria on the 4th at her dance team picnic. 

With her roommate.

With her boyfriend.