4th of July Weekend



It has been a long but fun weekend! My sister in law Hannah was visiting us for the past week and a half so for the 4th of July she tagged along with us and some friends to celebrate. Naturally I got bit by the baking bug so Hannah and I made a Red White and Blue cake from scratch... the red and blue layers were regular cake (which sadly came out a little heavier than I like, less flour next time I think) and the white layer was cheesecake. Hurricane Arthur hit us Thursday night so we started baking the cheesecake then and the rest of the cake Friday morning. We even made the cream cheese icing from scratch! I don't think I've made a cake not from a box and icing not from a can in almost a decade! Not too shabby!

 

 

We then headed over to my friend from work Jo's house and hung out with her, her husband John and my other coworker Morgan until we left for the fireworks. Henry, their adorable pup, wanted to be in our picture too. 

 

We figured it would be insanely crowded on base so we left pretty early to fight traffic. We didn't want to go in the giant massive crowd, personally I was ok with missing LL Cool J, so we decided to drive to work and park there. Luckily with our husbands' active duty IDs we were able to go through the road blocks and park with ease! We could hear the performers down the street and we still had room to play frisbee in the parking lot. Sadly once it got later MPs started directing people to park in our area but most of them still walked down to the field so our view remained safe!

 

The weather got ominous looking but only one or two drops hit us. After the show we could see it rained elsewhere on base but it seemed to stop just shy of us and the fireworks! We had a good hour or so to tailgate and hang out and we all had a blast.

Boys being boys

Surprisingly the fireworks started early, maybe by five minutes, and they went on for a long time! It was a pretty long show, nearly half and hour, and had one of the longest finales I have ever seen. I am very impressed Camp LeJeune! We had a perfect view from the truck and I love fireworks. They are near the top of my Top Ten Favorite Things List (yes it is a literal list) hence the reason Ryan proposed to me during the Disney Fireworks at EPCOT.

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. I love the country I live in and that my husband serves and I love celebrating that. For my family and my friends and everyone who calls this great nation home, it makes me proud as punch!

 

I am a terrible selfie taker.

We took the back gate home and luckily there was basically no traffic. Thank Goodness! We all hung out a bit longer before heading home and falling sound asleep. Pretty darn good 4th of July if you ask me! Saturday was spent cleaning, playing tennis (my husband finally got a racket!) and getting Japanese food for dinner. We also took the Dup for her yearly 'furminator' bath to help with her ridiculous shedding. She gets a special bath in deshedding shampoo and conditioner and then at least an hour long brushing session. Even the groomer said she was pretty shocked by the amount of hair that kept coming off, and we brush her a lot too! Dup Dup's report card was glowing, they all said she was incredibly sweet to everyone who handled her and gave tons of kisses. That's my good girl! And she looks so cute! I cracked and got her a bandana (since the proceeds go to military service dogs I could not resist!).

 

 

It did wear her out though and she slept pretty much the rest of the day. Sunday we went to church, drove to Wilmington to meet my mother in law and her husband to drop Hannah back off with them, have lunch, run to the commissary and then home again to pack our lunches and prepare for the week. Then we went and played tennis again. Today I am pretty sore (helloooo out of shapeness) and quite exhausted. I look forward to going to bed early tonight.

I hope you all enjoyed your Independence Day!