Happy 4th of July!

I love the Fourth of July! I think that it is definitely my favorite holiday. I love that we have one day completely dedicated to celebrating our wonderful country.

This year Andrew and I were going to go up with the swim team to a meet in Santa Barbara for the entire weekend. But due to the fires up in that area the meet was cancelled. So Thursday night we realized that we had no plans for the holiday weekend. But we made the most of it and ended up having a really fun holiday anyway. We decided that we had to have a 4th of July BBQ. Andrew loves to grill so we had the traditional burgers, corn on the cob and pasta salad. It was delicious. I wanted to make my mom's delicious strawberry pie, but after going to 7 stores we couldn't find what we needed, so I decided to make these "berry patriotic" cupcakes. They were delicious and very cute!

My friend and roommate from college, Marjorie, happened to be in town this weekend visiting her in-laws in South Pasadena. We went to dinner with them on Thursday night and when we told them that we had no plans for the Fourth, they kindly invited us to crash their party and watch the fireworks in South Pasadena. I couldn't get any good pictures of the fireworks, but believe me, they were beautiful! Here is Marjorie, her husband Jeremy and their little boy Ryan watching the fireworks. Thanks guys for letting us join you!

We also watched one of my favorite movies, "A More Perfect Union." I like to try and watch it every 4th of July. One year when I was teaching high school I watched it 8 times and never got tired of it! It is such a good reminder of all of the hard work that went in to constructing and writing our Constitution. James Madison is one of my greatest heroes. He had such faith in the "American experiment" and he worked so hard for our country. He has so many powerful and moving speeches in this movie. While watching it this year it was hard not to think about the many difficulties that our country is now going through. I really wonder what our founding fathers would think of our country today, what they would think of the things we have changed, what they would think of our political leaders. I think so many people take for granted their freedoms in this country. We forget how much work went into securing our rights and freedoms. We are truly so blessed to be citizens of a country that lets us be who we want to be and do what we want to do. I am sometimes scared for our country and all of the changes that are taking place or that people want to make. Our Constitution is the longest standing government document. If we begin making so many changes I worry that it's integrity will be lost. But I digress ... I love America! As cheesy as it may sound, I truly am grateful to be an American!