52 Blessings Project: Week #26 & #27

Two blessings come to mind this weekend:

Living in the United States of America
and Good Family Friends

I saw this quote on another blog. I don't know if it's common knowledge that passed me by somehow or not... but I loved it & found it related well to my blessings this week. John Adams wrote the following to his wife Abigail about the 4th of July,
"It ought to be celebrated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illumination, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, evermore."

Well, we share the same sentiments around our house and we enjoyed our celebration of this great country we are blessed to live in. We may take our freedom for granted sometimes. I'm grateful for the celebrations and commemorations that remind us how good we have it, how wonderful this country is, and how blessed we are. The fact that we enjoy religious freedom is paramount to me. If it were not for our Founding Fathers and for those who fought & gave their lives, the gospel of Jesus Christ could not have been restored. I love that I live here- especially so close to where the gospel was actually restored. I love the patriotic feeling I get when I sing or listen to patriotic songs. I am proud to be an American.

Now about the blessing of good family friends. Since we got married it has been tricky for Greg and I to find couple friends to spend time with since we both need to like both of them. Part of the reason I'm sure is that we haven't been real social- maybe too homebody-ish. I remember early on in our marriage too talking about the fact that growing up we remember our parents having friends, but not really ones that they would spend time with very often. We never saw our folks double dating with another couple from the ward or something like that. In both of our families there was a lot of extended family around, so that is who our families were social with. I think the concept of couple friends was a bit uncomfortable to us- a little foreign. What ever the reason, I think we're more comfortable now. As we have moved from place to place we have made progress :) Now, here in NY we've finally found a comfort zone. We have families that are good friends- and everybody likes everybody. We've been blessed now to have friends who feel like family... and new friendships continue to develop. {Thank goodness that we get some new ones when others up and move! (read: Merx's!)}. :)

Anyhow... We had a great Independence Day with some of our family friends- the Lewis', the Christensen's, and the Brandt's.

Our 4th of July festivities began when our first guests arrived at about 12:45pm.... and lasted until the last family left at about 11:45pm. An 11 hour day of fun- at least for us- I hope everyone else had as good of a time! :)

We played, ate, played some more- swimming, playground, water balloons, swingball, Trivial Pursuit, name that 70's or 80's tune off of Greg's iTunes, bounce houses, lots of visiting...and of course more eating (can you say dessert for dinner?). Then there was the parade- watching Reagan march in the junior color guard was the highlight, music and snacks in the park, the fireworks show- and then home for our 'not-quite-so-legal-bought-in-PA-fireworks' show in the backyard. So many pictures I want to post, I'm going to try a slide show. Jillie posted all about our party on her blog too...