Our First Fourth

Friday was a day we remembered America declaring its independence from the British.  This day has been commercialized pretty much every other holiday in order for stores to earn another buck.  Although these trends are not inherently bad it is vital to remember the true importance of this holiday.  I appreciate this holiday from the past few years after having served my mission.  So many of our founding fathers fought so that we could have the right to practice our religion as we dictated.  I am so grateful for that!  What a precious gift that we were given and how often do we forget about it.  I am so grateful that I could serve this great country and help proclaim the good news to everyone I came in contact with.

This past Tuesday as Carla and I went to devotional we sang as the closing hymn “America the Beautiful” as we were finishing Carla’s eyes filled with tears of gratitude.  This emotion really got to me and helped me reflect of how I take this country and so many of the blessings that come with it for granted.

Now for the activities: Carla and I went to the gym and I played basketball for the first time in probably a month.  It was so fun.  My last 20 minutes I played 2 on 2 and the last game I hit a game winning three. It was pretty fun.  Then we went to the Rexburg parade and we got some sun.  It was fun seeing all of the different organizations and then walking around the booths. 

After we went to the store and Carla bought some supplies for hamburgers and also some fruit.  At first I got a little irritated about how much it cost but I think we do a good job balancing each other out for budgeting. 

We also had the chance to check out an apartment in the Lexington complex.  It was a beautiful apartment and opens in August but part of me doesn’t want to pay for any rent until September.  The owner allows would give us a table and a couch so the deal is really desirable.  We need to talk about it over still.

Lastly we ate some burgers that we made and also some mozzarella sticks that we learned how to make this past week at a cooking class that we went to.  Then we watched some of National Treasure.  It was great fourth full of fun, activities, and relaxation, not to mention Carla and I were wearing matching t-shirts that Carla’s mom sent us with an American Flag on it.  We were looking pretty good ;)