Wednesday, July 6, 2011

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

Girls Camp

Wow, what a week. Girls camp was so much fun. The young woman in this ward are amazing. Seriously, I have never met more fantastic woman. However I'm not going to lie and say that it wasn't hard at first. You see, I got called into this calling 3 weeks before they left for camp. Very little preparations had been made for camp and even less communication. It was if no one knew how to take charge. The problem was...this didn't really manifest it's self until it was too late.  The first young woman's meeting I went to I was late because I had been told the wrong time. It was at 6, but I was told to come at 7pm....that was until I got a phone call at 6:20 asking where I was. Then when I got there, no one spoke to me, no one told me what was going on etc. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing--if anything--and no one was filling me in. I'm so shy that I didn't really get in people's faces to try and find out, I just kind of sat there and didn't say anything for an hour and a half.  Later when it was time to go to girls camp, it was another round of mis-communications or non-communication. There were mis-communications about the certifications our ward was supposed to teach, where our girls were supposed to be, etc. I finally had to push myself out of my comfort/shy zone and put myself in charge and get things done. I must say it was awkward and hard, but in the end it worth it. The girls were just so responsive, once they had someone in charge. Things went a lot smoother after that. I made some great friends--both young and old. I even conquered a bit of my spider fear.....well I learned to co-exsist with them. Here are a few pictures from our camping fun.
Cupcakes they made at girls camp. ALL of our meals were like this. They were amazing!!

When the YCL's prank's us. 

Our campsite

The Cabins at our campsite

The view from the end of our hike

The majority of our girls during our hike. Only our YCL's were missing. We left at 5:00am. The girls were troopers. 

Last night at camp, they were all dressed up for the Bishoprics

Same night