I'm proud to be an American

Independence Day Fireworks at Fort Rucker

 Independence day has always been one of my all time favorite holidays. I mean it has food (good food), parades, dances, concerts, crafts and of course fireworks. It's just a big party--and the reason we party is even better. Because we're FREE!! I remember when I was in highschool and Cami Jo and I would scout out good parade locations. Sometimes we were lucky---other times, not so much. haha. But we were ALWAYS decked out and ready to rock 'n' roll. I think my favorite memory is when we finally found the perfect spot---it might have been at 3 or 4 am and we laid out our sleeping bags and then got soaked like 30 mins later because all the sprinklers came on. Other good memories was watching fireworks explode over Lady Liberty, Stadium of Fire and of course our homemade rootbeer, baseball game and a BBQ in Paris, France. There is just nothing better than celebrating what means to be an American.

Then I married Aaron Isom, the love of my life and things got even better. It seems that the 4th of July is HIS favorite holiday too. YAY. Since this is the first year we've actually been able to be together, we wanted to live it up. I must say that Military celebrations are fantastic. They really understand the whole "proud to be an American" thing and therefore put forth some effort for a big deal celebration. That being said, we're STILL in the middle of nowhere, and it's not going to be as big as other places or long standing events (such as the freedom festival in Provo or fireworks in NYC). 

Still, they had a fair and a fun center for the kids (didn't get any pictures of that, sorry) and a big deal concert with a big deal name. It was a lot of fun. They had all the aircraft out so you could take a closer look of what they fly around here. Aaron and I didn't spend of ton of time over in that area, because we had done that already at the Utah National Guard Family day last summer.  But we did eat some fried 'gator and fried Oreos and fried Snickers. We ate a bb q pulled pork sandwich that was terrible and we watched Gary Sinise and the LT Dan Band. They were fun. Then afterwards we watched the fireworks. I believe the BEST part of this celebration was, even though it was crowded, it wasn't overbearing. On top of that, it threatened to rain all day and so it was nice and cool--not that hot.   Here are some pictures from our day--although for the life of me I can't get them in chronological order.

The Gary Sinise and the LT Dan Band. They were actually pretty good. 

Aaron and I chilin' waiting for the fireworks to start. 

At the little fair thing before the concert

Yup you read it right.
"tastes like chicken, but more rubbery" Aaron Isom

I couldn't get past the mental aspect of what I was eating...

YUM

The inside of a fried Oreo. Pretty good, but a little dry. 

Training helicopter. It's what Aaron will fly first.

Chinook  

A remote control type airplane that they actually use in battle. These are pretty cool.

The crowd gathering for the concert 

The Palmers 

Aaron and I having fun during the concert

Aaron finally getting around to eating his fried snickers. It was really yummy. I really liked how the chocolate was all melted, but it didn't get all over your hands

At the concert