Happy last-minute Independence Day!

On the third of July the elders quorom (the men's group in our church) was in charge of hosting a dinner dance for all the adults in our church. Since Jake is in the preseidency in our elders quorom we had to help put it together. It was kindof last minute considering that only a couple weeks prior the bishop had asked the quorom president how the dance plans were coming and he was totally clueless that there was supposed to be a dance. We got back form our Tahoe trip the week before and didn't know about it until the Sunday before it was supposed to happen. Anyways, we took over the decorating and the desserts. I thought that given the short notice the decorations turned out really great. Too bad I didn't take my camera with me to the dance! After Jake and I spent 2 hours setting up the church with very little help it started, but only about 30 minutes after it started the power went out! It was a real bummer. At least we all got to eat. The power was out in that whole area of the city. We did go outside and continue dancing in the parking lot for a little while, but we ended early and took down all of our hard work in decorations with flashlights. It was still fun to dance in the parking lot though.

This Fourth of July we decided to host a party. It was pretty last minute as well because we had only been home from our Tahoe trip for a week or so, and by the time we thought to have a party a lot of people already had plans. Also we were pretty busy with the dance that was only the day before. But we had a few friends come over in the afternoon and swim, then we had an early dinner outside. It turned out really well. Summer parties are pretty easy with a pool. I don't feel like I have to do much entertaining aside from the food. We just say "go swim" and everyone has a great time. Here is our decked out backyard, I reused some of the decorations from the dance:
This is us at the fireworks. We went and parked in the parking lot of Jake's work. It is right across the street from the park where they do the fireworks show and they only let employees in to watch from there. We sat with some work friends and it was really fun.
Here is Kailey at the party. She loves her bumbo! She will sit in that thing all day, but she won't do swings or bouncers. I just thought this picture turned out ultra cute.

Here are a bunch of people in the pool:

I have to end by saying how grateful I am to live in this country. If you haven't ever read the book 1776, you should read it. It is a nonfiction account of that year, but is written like a fiction. It really made me feel like this country could only have come to be with the help of our God. The outlook of the independence of this country was so bleak from every angle. After reading that book it leaves you wondering if we really did win the war. I just feel like there is no way that we could have won independence without divine intervention. I am grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy in this country, and I hope to be more involved in my community in the upcoming year. We will see.