God Bless America

I should learn the words to that song.  I only know about half of the first verse, how sad is that?

Today was a glorious Fourth filled with food, friends, and fireworks.  Can't get any better than that!  I was in Salt Lake for the day, and spent some time with Lindz, her sister Erin, and their Westie puppy named Boo.  It's not good to have pets around me, because I will ignore everyone else and just play with said pet.  Proof of this was pointed out to me when I spent hours playing with the puppy and her plastic toy replica of a foot.  My friends know that feet and I don't really get along.  Well, this dog licked my toes, bit them a little, and then had me play with her plastic foot toy for around an hour.  Yeah.  I'm a sucker for pets.

Moving on . . . one of Erin's friends invited us over for a barbecue, and we jumped at the chance for some grilled food.  It's one of the best things about the summer- grilled ANYTHING!  We whipped up some chicken kabobs, sliced up some watermelon, and headed out the door.  I was utterly shocked at what met my eyes when I saw the food table at this 'barbecue'.

Now, this is how my family (and most Midwesterners) roll at a barbecue/picnic:

Corn casserole, chips, mustard potato salad, baked beans, sandwiches, KFC, mashed potatoes, maybe a few carrot sticks, a veggie tray that doesn't get eaten, you get the idea.  Hearty, filling, not-so-healthy options.  When I scoped out the food table at this BBQ, it looked like everyone had brought a salad with weird stuff in it!  I think everyone there had watched their favorite Food Channel chef and used a recipe from their show.  It was so fancy and gourmet!!!  There was salad with spinach and fruit, white potato salad with feta, rosemary, and fennel, Quinoa, cucumber salad, pepper salad with 5 kinds of nuts in it, homemade granola cookies, homemade grain chips, ginger ale with fresh mint in it, and that is just for starters, I can't remember the rest!

There was a long line for the barbecue, so I ended up just loading a plate with all the different salads (yes, I tried them all!), and getting my veg on.  I am not very adventurous in my food choices normally, but I have been trying to branch out.  Most of the salads were pretty good, and the white potato salad with feta and rosemary was AWESOME!  Even though the food was out of my league, I still had a great time.  It was mostly people from the single adult ward, so the age range was a little higher.  But I met some great people and had some good laughs (along with some amazing food!).

After the non-BBQ (I didn't even get to eat anything that was grilled!), we headed back to Lindz's house and set up camp on her front lawn.  They live just across the street from the park where the fireworks were being set off.  We literally had the best seats available.  Aerial fireworks were legal for the first time this year, and Lindz's neighbors really went to town with a great show before the Big Show.  I felt a little ashamed of the small fountains, sparklers, and morning glories that I brought for us to use.  But, Lindz and I had a great time playing with sparklers with the kids next door.

I kept trying to get a photo of me spelling my name with sparkler.  Yeah, it didn't work, but I had fun attempting.  And no, I didn't burn myself or set anything on fire!  There was only one rogue ember, and we took care of that really quickly!

We really did have the best view of the Big Show.  It was a great end to a great day.  I love the fact that we celebrate all the wonderful things about our country on the 4th of July.  Although it may not always seem like it, there are a lot of blessings and things to be grateful for that come from being a citizen of this amazing country.  God bless America and keep her safe!