Independence!

What a fantastic weekend! If I were elected President, I would make every weekend span 3 days! I had Friday off, since the Fourth of July fell on a Saturday this year. so Friday was going to be a fun, family day. We started our day by heading to Memphis Kiddie Park. This is an amusement park that consists entirely of rides for children under 50 inches (127cm) tall. They have a mini ferris wheel, carousel, race-cars on an electric track, rocket ships, a train and mini roller coaster, which was Nathan's favorite! Nathan's independence started shining through, as he went on most rides alone (due to the 50 inch height restriction). I went with him first on the rollercoaster, and he loved it. next he took Liesel with him. The following two times, he went alone and when asked what his favorite part of the day was, his answer was riding the rollercoaster, while sitting alone in the very front! That's my boy!

After the exciting excursion, we headed home and I went riding with my friend Ron. The County has some lovely bike trails a few miles from his house, that take you through some stunning landscapes, and over the Black River.

It was a really enjoyable 6 miles or so that we covered! Of course, while I was out riding, Liesel stood on a recently discovered garden snake while walking in our back yard!!! This seems to be the same snake that she discovered a few weeks back while I was in Washington DC! When I got home I asked her to show me where, and as she walked to the spot, the snake AGAIN slithered away, inches from her feet!! Now the south side of our house is not getting much foot traffic.... That evening Nathan and I headed down to our local beach, to catch the sun setting after a beautiful summer's day!


On Saturday, we washed our cars in the morning, and then each headed our separate ways to attend to some household chores. Fireworks were the order for the night, and this was the first year that we were at home for the Independence Day celebrations. Earlier that day, Nathan indicated that he didn't want to go to a big fireworks display, so we spent the evening at home. However, our neighbor's fireworks were quite impressive. These started being fired off randomly at around 5pm, building to a crescendo between 10pm and 11pm. Of course, some had enough gun-powder filled tubes, to keep the artificial light and sound show going to after midnight!

I had about 6 hours sleep before it was time to get and and make myself presentable for church... I was playing this morning, and this time I was playing with my very talented friend, Ian, for the first time! It was an incredible time of worship and I really had a good time. This afternoon, Liesel and I arranged a babysitter for Nathan and Josh, and we had the rare opportunity to go and watch a movie. We went to The Proposal, and we laughed until our eyes watered! It was thoroughly enjoyable - and nice to be alone, independent of our boys for a few hours!

Later that evening, Ian, came over and brought ice cream for us to enjoy! We had a really relaxed and laid back evening, playing on the Wii, and chatting. Nathan is a huge fan of his, since I have a CD in my car that has a couple of songs of his. Everytime I am in the car with Nathan, he requests that I play Ian's songs! So imagine Nathan's delight, when Ian took my guitar, and gave Nathan (and us) a private performance of Nathan's favorite song! The smile on Nathan's face said it all! What a way to end the weekend!