happy 4th of july

the 4th of july has always held special memories for me. ever since i can remember it is a day filled with family, fun and traditions. growing up we always went to see the parade and then fireworks at night. once gene and russ bought their house up in door county we started celebrating the 4th up there. that is where my fondest memories are from. there were even a few years that i remember that russ and his brother-in-law were in the parade. we helped him decorate his mopeds with crepe paper streamers so that they could ride in the parade. and talk about candy being thrown out - garbage sack fulls! such fun.

gene always outdid herself with the food - either brats or burgers, with tons of sides, including a 3 layer red,white and blue jello. for dessert i was in charge of making a flag cake - pretty easy, a white cake with cool whip as the frosting - sliced strawberries for the stripes and blueberries for the stars.

of course being the superstitious person i am, you HAVE to wear red, white and blue on the 4th. it was always fun to see my sister's family scrambling around in the morning, borrowing things from others to make their red, white and blue outfit. no matter how many times gene or i would remind them to brings things up, they never seemed to remember. i wonder if they remembered today? doubtful....

watching the fireworks at night was the finale of the days activities. we would either sit on lawn chairs or lay on blankets and ooh and aww as the fireworks were shot off. a few years it became pretty funny as there seemed to be a 3 minute pause between each one set off. we kidded each other that the town was short of money and wanted to make the show last more than 2 minutes. i will never forget the year my sister tried to parallel park and ended up in some poor souls bush, or the year matt set off a smoke bomb in a porta-potty. of course i didn't find out it was him until much later!

this year will be quiet and different than those previously remembered. we have renters up in door county so we will not be up there. both boys are working so we will have our meal tomorrow. bob and i are invited over to some friends for a drink before the fireworks start. however, i may pass on the foreworks and come home to watch them on tv. the mosquitoes have really hatched the past few days and i guess i'm not as tough as i use to be, especially without my family peer pressure. the only thing i know for sure is that i made certain that mark had his patriotic boxers on before he left for work and i will make sure matt does the same. bob will also get the "inspection" when he gets dressed for the day.

happy 4th to all.