Happy July!

This was the way Mina would greet us every Independence Day morning, and this is the greeting we use in our house to this day. We had a nice fourth, having made actual plans for the first time since losing the girls. K had to work in the morning, but we had a yummy hamburger cookout before the rains came in the afternoon, and we went to Lake Grapevine to watch the fireworks in the evening. We used our nifty new navigation system to guide us to and from the perfect spot, lugged our nifty new camping chairs, drinks, strawberries, and three children up a steep hill that overlooked the lake (I was somewhat amazed that I didn't slip or topple over on the slippery post-rain grass trying to climb while holding Layth's hand and carrying the baby,) settled down among the rapidly growing crowd and soon discovered that we had the perfect view ... of a giant oak tree. I think I sensed that the tree would be a problem as soon as we sat down, but chose to hope the fireworks would be higher than the tree rather than pick up and move again. By the time we decided it would probably be worth it to move, everyone else behind the oak tree with us had already moved over and filled all the empty viewing spaces. Still, the splashes of color behind the silhouette of the oak tree were very artistic, and the children were beautifully behaved. Even little Maya sat perfectly in her little chair and "ooh"ed and "aah"ed in all the right places. I even remembered the insect repellant, which was a must. A lovely day, all in all. Happy July!