Stars and Stripes 4-EVA

We celebrated the 4th of July the way we always do [if the holiday falls near a weekend] -

at the beach! 

The beach was consistently beautiful last year, so I forgot that excessive seaweed if normal for the middle of the summer.  I quickly remembered as soon as I walked down to the beach on Thursday evening and every available stretch of sand, from the dunes to the water, was covered in seaweed, with more washing up with every wave.  It just continued to build and build, so I didn’t spend an excessive amount of time actually on the beach.  We were lucky to go down early and snag a spot that someone cleared the day before.  Then we broke the rake trying to clear a path to the water.

So I wouldn’t call any trip with two very small children relaxing, but we did have our moments.  Tate was relaxed, spending most of his time with GABA (aka Great Aunt Betty-Ann).  Even though she has four children of her own and is a pediatrician, I’m always surprised by how much she loves babies.  I’m not sure that Tate was happy about having to sleep in a crib today instead of her arms.

Rush likes donuts, by the way.  I’m with him on that one.  At some point in life I’m going to mix a glazed donut into chocolate ice cream – it’s my fattening food disaster fantasy.

I’m on sabbatical from reading on the beach, which has given me the opportunity to discover that I love building sand castles.  I have big plans for future beach weekends…if I start collecting now, I think I can get together enough army men and Happy Meal toys for a giant sand fortress.  If we throw in a few dump trucks, we should be set for the day.

Celebrating 4th of July on a Monday at the beach is a little weird because it’s the day you go home and July 4th isn’t really a moveable holiday.  So while we had our fill of hotdogs over the course of the weekend, there were no hamburgers, no watermelon, no red, white, and blue sprinkled cupcakes to eat on Independence Day.  Plus the boys wore their flag T’s on July 3rd, so we didn’t even have the proper attire.  The fireworks ban meant no dusk til dawn amateur fireworks show and a car ride home and bedtime for tired boys meant no professional fireworks show for us.

But Trent and I did use the ride home to sing every patriotic song we could think of, from the Star Spangled Banner to She’s a Grand Old Flag and even a rendition of Tie A Yellow Ribbon, which is actually about a man coming home from prison.  But once I start singing about the flag, then it starts to get stuck in my head and I have to sing it. 

Next year we’ll do better –more patriotic clothing, more flags, more decorations, more color coordinated food.  For this year I just have to be content with knowing in my heart I’m proud to be an American.   But really, next year, we’re doing the blueberry and strawberry flag cake.