A perfect week of Red, White and Blue!

This here is my awesome hubby Tracy

(he made me laugh when he told me NOT to post this photo of him
looking all "Betsy Ross"...LOL!)

July 2nd I pulled out my flag and pole as I was SO excited to get it hung on my porch in time for

Independence Day on July 4th.

The edge was quite frayed, however, everything else was in perfect shape so Tracy pulled up the sewing machine from our basement and proceeded to sew around the edge of the flag multiple times.

The flag will probably wear out before the edge frays again, he sewed it that well!

I LOVE the American Flag!!

I love this time of the year

where you see SO many flags flying around.

Each and every flag that I see you can be guaranteed

that I will be HAPPY and SMILING!
I love singing "The Star Spangled Banner" and all of the many other Patriotic songs! They also make me happy and as I listen to the words of them and truly ponder them,

I feel so much gratitude for what our forefathers went through

on our behalf to give us the WONDERFUL Freedom

that we freely enjoy each and every day of our lives!

I have a heart of gratitude

for all they suffered and went through to make America what it is today!

I thought it quite interesting

as I ponder on my week and realized that every day was filled with the beautiful colors of

Red, White and Blue!

Here are photos showing our fun

and the perfect week we had!

Sunday July 3rd, 2011

Sunday after church we took our kids for a drive into Idaho Falls We had one of those moments of serendipity where we were driving down the road that the Civic Auditorium and I looked at the marquee and it said:

Celebration of Liberty production July 3rd at 7:00 pm FREE.

I looked at my watch and it was 6:30 and made a comment that they are doing a FREE event at the Civic and we should go to it. Tracy was kind of worried as we weren't dressed up, but we looked at people walking in and even though there were many people dressed up, there were plenty of people in casual clothes as well so we decided to go and enjoy.

SO happy we chose to do that

as it was such a learning opportunity for my kids as they reenacted part of the Virginia Second Convention, had inspiring music and speeches and the kids all got a pamphlet of "The Constitution of the United States". We all loved it and it was so nice to have an atmosphere for teaching and learning and true enjoyment of the local talent in our area. Hoping we can go to it again next year!

Monday July 4, 2011

Morning...my favorite time of day!
First thing I do every morning when I wake up is open the front door, walk onto the porch and look to the east to see the colors of the morning sky!

It was a spectacular site and I ran and work Tracy up so we could enjoy it together!!

The morning sky was the

perfect backdrop for flag hanging on our porch.

Absolutely gorgeous!

Our 4th of July has the yearly tradition of taking a picnic to Lava Hot Springs and soaking and swimming for a few hours and sitting in the hot pools and enjoying the fireworks while they light them off the Cliff right above the hot pools. It truly is a wonderful tradition that I'm SO glad we do. There is nothing more amazing than sitting in hot water enjoying my family along with the wonder and awe of the starlight sky as it is lit up by gorgeous fireworks!

I'm going to miss having young kids in the house...

savoring the JOY and happiness that these two boys fill my life with!!

Wednesday July 6, 2011

We enjoyed a hike to the mountains after I finished "home chatting" from 7-9 and as I was looking through the photos, noticed there was much "red, white and blue" in the clothes we were wearing.

A truly awesome day of great scenery,

hiking and FAMILY TIME!

(post about our awesome hike coming later this week)

Friday July 8, 2011

I had a moment of sadness,

in fact, it was moment where I actually broke into tears and cried as I was driving home and heard all of the details of the last launch of the Space Shuttle!

It felt like a piece of my heart was ripped out. It's such a silly thing to get sad about, but I have so many wonderful memories of watching with wonder and awe during elementary school when the Space Shuttle launched off on many different times.

We would actually stop doing our school lessons and our teacher would turn on the TV and we got to watch it LIVE as it took off.

I can't believe how much time has flown by

and can't believe that this part of history is coming to an end.

A few years ago (2005)

we had a space shuttle exhibit come to the Museum of Idaho that we went to with most of Tracy's family. I took a stroll down memory lane and had to post some of the photos from that great family outing. Ethan was only 3 and LOVED every moment that we were there and he was in "action mode" the whole time and bawled terribly when we had to leave the exhibit. He could have stayed there and played all day!

(Tracy's dad used to work for the space program with some of the programming...love this photo of him posed in front of the NASA sign)

Time has really flown by since this photo...

Saturday July 9, 2011

One of the sweetest people I know Tauna had a wonderful wedding reception for her son on Saturday evening and WOW, she has the most amazing yard with the most gorgeous flower pots cleverly put together, she had SO many "red, white and blue" flags and pots all over her yard. (along with homemade pinwheels)

Loved her entrance into her garden that had the sign

"Garden of Egan"!

(which also happens to be the name of her blog)

One of her pots said:

"Bring Beauty to Life"

and she has truly brought beauty to her yard and most of all filled all of our lives with BEAUTY with her kind words she gives in abundance and her wonderful friendship and personality!

She is amazing with her talent and is just an awesome woman...

what a blessing to be able to call her my friend!

Such a fun evening and I have to share

the beauty that we experienced that night.

Feeling gratitude for

FREEDOM, peace, beauty,

wonderful friendships and most of all

the most amazing family in the world!