July 4th

Happy Fourth! I sure do miss the popsicles and warm weather, but we do alright over here. The Embassy always puts on a rip-roarin' party complete with burgers, baseball and fireworks.

And fairy floss. Oh, the fairy floss.

They even went all out and got Mr. Buzz Aldron out for the event. Will was stoked to "stand close enough to touch him" (he's 2 kids to his right) and Kenna is holding Summer off to the left side. Darren even got in on the action serving food and then having his name drawn to win A CASE OF JACK DANIELS. When they heard his name announced the kids were bouncing off the walls shouting "What'd he win?! What'd he win?!" Poor little dejected souls. (Amid his coworkers' laughter, D just opened the box, red-faced, and handed them out to lucky front liners :)

The party was a week in advance so on the actual night, we settled with singing our anthem and having a treat. Honestly, our national anthem is a pretty stirring song to begin with, but something about being overseas really knocks that song up a huge notch. I get so emotional singing it over here. (And apparently we need to do that more, because my kids know more verses to Australia's anthem than our own now~)

Happy Independence Day, my American friends. We sure miss you all and feel continuous gratitude to all those who have fought so valiantly to let freedom ring in the U.S.A.

(If you haven't read it in your book club yet - you need to grab a copy of "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption." It's huge but I blew through it in a couple days - such an incredible story, you won't be able to put it down.)