Fourth of July

I have loved the Fourth of July since I was in middle school. I love the heat, the picnics, the colors, and being part of something that entire cities celebrate. Ryan and I were even married on the fourth of July (really, that was just coincidence... I wasn't so freakishly weird about my love of the holiday that I planned on getting married that day.. it just so happened that in 1998 the fourth of July was a Saturday.) In today's day and age, I am overtly sentimental about the holiday and am guaranteed to cry at least once upon some rendition of the national anthem or God Bless America (especially when I am near a military post where I know that I am surrounded by soldiers who have or will soon be facing dangerous and long deployments. )

Some of our anniversary celebrations have been splendid-- nice dinners, weekends away, celebrations with friends and families. Other years have not gone so smoothly and Ryan and I just realized those anniversaries have all happened while here at Fort Rucker (with the exception of the anniversary we had while he was in Iraq.) . Our very first anniversary started off well, but ended when this happened to our new-to-us Mustang convertible:

(this isn't the actual picture, but it gives you an idea.)

Last year, we were going to spend the day and evening at a big block party. We were excited about our new friends and the party itself. Unfortunately, Jared and I spent the day throwing up, but Ryan still managed to have a great day (don't ask me where Kaci was- he was in charge of her):

This year, we made plans to go to dinner. The kids let me get ready without a hassle, Ryan had made the reservations, and all was well in our house. So then we sat and waited for the sitter to come. We waited. And waited. And waited. Unfortunately, she never showed due to a misunderstanding. This was more tragic for kids because they love their babysitters. Well, even though Ryan and I were all dressed up with no place to go, we thought we could make the kids feel better by taking them to the drive-in. After the second costume change, we were loaded and ready to go. On the way to the drive-in, we knew we had set our kids up for another disappointment:

The rain started and didn't stop--not suitable for a drive-in. So we headed back to our house with two upset kids trying to convince us that they could still see the movie in the rain. All we could do is look forward to next day.

The next day, our actual anniversary and Independence Day, was spent on Fort Rucker with friends and we had a great time.