4th of July Memories

This may go down as the our most memorable 4th of July weekend in recent history.

It was by far the most emotional.

We started the day with my nephew’s wedding.

JOY!

It was a precious celebration of answered prayers and God’s faithfulness. And yes, I cried – but they were happy tears!

While the newlyweds took off on their honeymoon, the rest of us shed our wedding attire and moved on to my sister’s for a family cook-out.  You know the kind – an All-American baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet kind of day.

Except that instead of baseball – we had contests on the trampoline to see who could catch a leaf with their teeth while jumping.
And instead of a Chevrolet we had go-cart races.

But we did have hot dogs and pie and lots of laughter.

And cotton candy.

And a strange dog that looked remarkably like Lassie.

And while the rest of the country lit sparklers and fire works – we fired a Civil War cannon.  Bet that made the neighbors jump! (And no – we did not use Jan’s cannon ball!)

It was a little bittersweet as we said our goodbyes that evening. We knew that we would all be together the next night at my Grandpa’s visitation and again on Saturday for Grandpa’s funeral.

From wedding to funeral.

Tears of joy and tears of sorrow.

Making new memories and remembering old ones.

An emotional roller coaster.

But it was all good.

And God is faithful through it all. The joy and the pain. The happy and the sad.

The circle of life.