Oh, hey.

Would you believe that I've been busy?

Well anyway. As promised, I'm here to make my 4th of July festivities sound as exciting as humanly possible. And just to prove that I mean business, I'm even supplying you with this stellar video from Youtube. So just in case I fail in my effort to make this exciting, the high-quality flag throughout the whole thing should make up the difference, and then some.

So go ahead. Turn it on full blast (full blast!) while you read. I dare you not to feel patriotic.



Like what you see? (And why wouldn't you?) Well you're in luck, because there's a whole bunch more where that came from. Thank me later.

Now that you're properly equipped with the perfect background reading music, we can get started.

This weekend was not just the 4th of July. It was also Clara's *blessing day. And it was Lucy's blessing day. And it was Lyndi's birthday. Quite the event, really. Don't know who Lucy and Lyndi are? Let me introduce you.

Tom's brother and his wife recently had baby Lucy, who was born just one month after Clara. So we decided it'd be fun to have a duel blessing day. (And then we'll have duel baptisms, duel weddings, and so on and so forth—because we've already decided that these girls shall be BFF's for sure. They'll probably room in college together and go on to be next door neighbors for the rest of their lives. Yep.)

Naturally, the one fear I'd been harboring for weeks came true: Clara cried through her whole blessing. But on a positive note, I'm just relieved she didn't scream through the whole thing. Because this girl is a five-star screamer. No, it was more of an irritated I-was-comfortable-the-way-I-was-why-did-you-have-to-move-me-and-who-are-all-these-strange-men-standing-over-me sort of cry. At least we could still hear Tom. It was a lovely blessing, to be sure.

It was my full intention to get a picture of the two BFF's together (as was it Tracy's), and then somehow it never happened and I'm still not even sure why. Meh—we both just had babies. I don't think we should be held accountable for anything. So for now this one will have to do:

Due to the big event, we had quite the crew come and spend the holiday weekend in our neck of the woods. Indeed, it was 72+ hours of swimming, sparklers, watermelon, and red, white and blue. Oh, and Finding Nemo and The Jungle Book. By the time Sunday evening rolled around I was so exhausted that I was unable to even pick up the camera to document my brother's "Moapa Valley Special" firework extravaganza—complete with loud bangs, bright lights, glow sticks, and a visit from Orem city's finest, a police officer. *As usual. So wiped that I just sat there, alternating back and forth from a catatonic state to a slap-happy state, laughing at everything these two said:

Is the music still playing? By all means, feel free to repeat.

Finally I thought to myself, "What am I still doing out here?" And I promptly retreated back to our apartment—which sort of looked like a low-grade tornado had blown through, and crawled into bed. Plus, I had a headache the size of Texas. 

All of which—as you know—is a sign of a very, very successful holiday weekend.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. (I think.)

Footnotes: 
*1—Silly me, I have yet to take a closeup of Clara in her blessing dress. BUT, she is wearing the same frilly thing that I wore many moons ago for my blessing. I wanted to be sentimental like that. 
*2—My brother—12 years my elder—will never be able to understand that not all people share the same adoration of fireworks as he does. Even on the 4th of July.




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Up next:
I have no idea but let's keep our fingers crossed it's something brilliant.