Freedom

Old glory--the American symbol of freedom.  Yesterday on the radio I heard this quote from Ronald Reagan “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”  It got me thinking a bit.  Yes, freedom is fragile.  Physical freedom as well as spiritual freedom.  Do you have spiritual freedom?  Have you allowed Christ to free you from the bondage of sin and guilt?  I do.  It might sound over confident to say it--but it's true.  As a child I asked the Lord to take away my shackles of sin and give me the ultimate freedom and wrap me in the loving embrace of Salvation.  No matter what happens to my physical freedom, no one can ever take away my salvation and spiritual freedom.  NOW then, am I doing what I need to do to "pass it on" to the next generation?  Do I pray for my children each and every day?  Do I read the Scriptures with them and live Christ before them?  Not every day I don't.  Many days I'm sure it looks a lot to them as though I'm still living shackled by sin.  But I pray that the Lord will not allow my many mistakes to trip them up.  May the next generation have freedom!
 It has been several years since we were home for the 4th of July--I think since before we moved to Idaho, actually.  The past 3 summers that we've lived back in this area we've heard about the 4th of July parade in down town Bothell and this year we thought we'd check it out.  Folks had started setting up their chairs lining the streets 3-4 days in advance.  I guess it's pretty popular!  We found a spot at the very end of the route. 
The first float that passed us was a Christmas theme.  Confusing.  "Disturbing" a local friend described it. 

 Daddy took pity on Nora and went to help her get some candy being thrown to the kids.  See the empty bag?  That's how it came back after half an hour of trying to obtain one silly piece of candy.  There were a lot kids duking it out for that candy!  Ezra and Caroline threw some elbows and got themselves a few pieces--but they were too far away and engulfed in the crowd of kids for me to snap shots of them.

 Ezra was hoping for bag pipers--he got his wish!

 All in all, the parade was not what we (the adults) were expecting.  The kids had a lot of fun.  We hear that things were a lot more sparse this year than in the past.  Home again, home again we jiggity jigged.  The kids enjoyed "pop-its" out on the basketball pad.  The weather has cooled down quite a bit, you can see by the sweaters being worn.  Everyone acclimated to the heat and now the 70's feels cool to them, I guess.

 The Daddy-Man made shelves for the shed and the Mommy-Girl made some festive supper preparations.  The lemonade was supposed to be blue-ish with red berries floating in it.  It turned out to be pink with blue berries floating in it.  Either way it tasted good.

 This next series of pictures makes me laugh.  All a Mommy wants is ONE good picture of Daddy and the kids.  Instead she gets a flip book of ensuing disaster.  Such is life. 

And they all fell down.  We decided to brave the crowds once again and drove to the Kirkland water front to see the fireworks display.  It felt a bit claustrophobic--but the display was pretty.  And call me a Grandma if you will, but bed at midnight is just not my thing anymore.  Although, soon--very soon--I shall be up partying in the wee hours of the night and morning each and every day.  Ohhhhh.....I'm so not ready for that part of it! : )