I was going to make some joke about how America doesn’t look a day over 217! But then I got to thinking…I like to think my country has the same outlook on aging that I have. I think the USA is proud of every year it’s defied the odds and remained the greatest country on Earth. It wears each of the 250 years like a badge of honor and rightly so.
When we first started celebrating most of our holidays on a much smaller scale, it was hard on me. It all felt too calm and too quiet. I’ve grown up a bit and now I’m appreciating our cozy family gatherings. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so excited to have Garyn back for any holiday we can get him. But Neil and I plus our girls plus my dad on occasion feels amazing.

I leaned in to the theme for food…berries on zucchini pancakes for breakfast, and Strawberry Pretzel salad for dessert after the usual pizza (it was Saturday after all). We got our traditional porch picture and the puppies got beef knuckles as big as their skulls to commemorate the momentous occasion. Neil and I barely stopped laughing enough to take a mediocre selfie and sparklers were as awesome as ever. We got super sized really long ones that did different colors and they were so cool.
But I think the coolest part of the whole night was that our missionary got to join us. They had permission to call home and since they had to be in at 5, it meant that at 9 our time he had absolutely nothing to do but watch fireworks over the phone with us. It was amazing and so so cool.

P.S.
My sunflowers have been growing slowly but surely and I thought they would make the perfect P.S.