Happy 4th

Last week for family home evening we read some scriptures in the Book of Mormon about Christopher Columbus and the birth of our nation.

"I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land." 1 Nephi 13:12

"There shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring." 2 Nephi 1:6-7

"And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them. And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle.." 1 Nephi 13:17-18

I have always loved those scriptures, but as we read them to our children, I was struck by the sacrifice our ancestors made as they left everything behind to come to this promised land to worship God. I know they were brought here by the hand of the Lord, and I am so blessed to live here so I can raise my children in religious freedom.

Afterwards we made our fireworks crowns, which are always a big hit.

We had a relaxing 4th of July. Dave took the boys to the school in the morning to fly Spencer's Airhogs remote control airplane he bought with his birthday money. Then Ellen and Jason and Anna came over for a BBQ - grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, corn on the cob and scotcheroos. It was funny - as were waiting for the fireworks, Jason mentioned that he was way full from eating too many scotcheroos. I told him we brought Oreos, which he immediately wanted.

We also tried out Dave's birthday present.

Anna is pretty much Brennan's favorite person in the world right now. They sat in front of us in church today, and he kept pointing to her and saying, "Anna! See mom? Anna!"

I love this picture.
After dinner we headed over to the park for fireworks. It was windy and cold, so they played soccer to stay warm.As you can see I finally got around to haircuts this week. Spencer and Tyler requested summer buzzes.

But I couldn't cut Brennan's hair too short because he has a funny-shaped head that looks better when covered up with hair. By the way, I love Photoshop. Have I mentioned?

The fireworks display was awesome, as always. I had fun using my camera's "fireworks" setting. And no one got scared this year. We thought Brennan or Anna might, but they were just mesmerized. Brennan said, "Boom! Boom! Lights!" Yep, that pretty much sums it up.