Happy Bday, America

In the last 5 years since we moved away, only once have we been able to spend the 4th of July back in my little Utah home town- Huntsville, where it is well known that the earth's best Independence Day celebration is held each year. It is small town Americana freedom day perfection, and we have pined for it every time the 4th has rolled around without us there.

Well this year we'd had enough pining. After making fruitless online searches for anything similar within driving distance of Memphis, we decided we'd create our own small town celebration complete with parade, breakfast in the park, face painting, and old fashioned games and booths. 

Well, it was a near perfect day. (Perfect in the usual tired kids, scraped knees, sticky faces, slightly stressful but still lovely sort of way). We had over 80 friends come to join in the fun (and help in planning and running everything!) and I'm hoping this will become a yearly tradition.

Some (many) photos from our day:

Sadie, Max the clown, and Stephanie rolling by.

Lady Liberty Lucy, Miss Maryanne and Dani.

All the Wilson Women (Caleb was still rounding at the hospital, but he arrived in time for breakfast).
(I borrowed this picture from Katie. Thanks Katie!)

A pouting Amelia Earhart in her plane and some of our fantastic breakfast crew Sarah, Alicia and Ben.

My friend Sheri led the kids in a patriotic mini land-grab in the form of musical chairs and then a limbo line.  (Jane elbowed her way to victory in musical chairs and I sadly did not capture that moment of awesomeness on camera.)

The big race.

Olivia and Charlotte ready to race, and Emme sharing licks with Lucy.

America, I love ya so much. So grateful for all it means to be a part of you. Happy Birthday.

Friends, I sure hope you had a wonderful, patriotic day spent with people you really like. Happy 4th of July.

The Garden

In the little Utah town where I grew up we had a garden. Down a long, stony, weedy path from the house we planted a large rectangular plot with peas, corn, potatoes, squash, and a few other goodies. The soil there had been tilled and de-rocked by my dad for 2 decades and the composts of years of bygone gardens had turned the ground into a miniature fertile plain. My summer slumbers were cut short by the daily early morning call to wake up and weed the garden. The peas were plentiful and the corn was tall and thick enough to play hide and seek in.

Caleb and I kept a garden in that same spot during our first four years of marriage. Our two oldest girls learned to love picking fresh peas from the vine and shelling and eating them right there in the garden with their bare toes squishing into the dark dirt.

When we moved away, I had plans for a new garden plot of our own, but the Pittsburgh soil, soaked by constant rains, was clay-like and unforgiving. I didn't know how to begin to make it ready for planting, so I left it alone, and felt not a little guilty.

But sun-baked, moist Memphis air has given me courage and this year we finally have a dainty but happy garden once again. The last couple of weeks have given us our first small harvests: itty bitty but sweet peaches! Late strawberries, basil (we made pesto!), cucumbers and tomatoes, one yellow squash (plucked just as I discovered some horrible little vine borers destroying my squash plants) and a few early handfuls of blackberries. 

I am always a little (pleasantly) surprised when I bite into something grown right out of our backyard soil and it doesn't taste like dirt. 

It tastes like heaven.

Also along the lines of food and the afterlife: we made some strawberry jam the other day and I overheard Jane singing this catchy little tune over and over as she ate her roll with jam atop:

"Jam, jam, dammity-damn. I love jam!"

 You'll be singing it too next time you pull out the smucker's. You're welcome.

Back

Well hi! Computer is finally fixed (I hope) and I'm so happy. I've missed this space. There's certainly lots of catching up to do, so today I'm sharing some summery good times from the last month. Mostly just a photo recap. Grandma W. came to visit and we explored Mud Island River Park, we hit the zoo, we made our own Chinese restaurant, and Jane pulled out her own tooth, then went ahead and pulled out another one later that day. We've been swimming and sunscreening a whole lot, and filling our days with silly summer funstuffs. I wish summer could go on forever. 

June 2013:

Summer, B & W

Just us christening summer with some back yard camping and a trip to the nature center to investigate bugs and other vermin.