Day 68 -- Fourth of July

Isn't he so cute?!  He wanted his picture taken looking like an octopus!

                             

                       Because the Fourth of July is my absolute favorite holiday…I really missed being home with my family and celebrating our freedom together.  But don’t worry!  The Grants threw me a Fourth of July dinner party!  We made paper party hats, and the kids decorated the walls with little American flags!  I appreciated this so much, they have no idea!  We ate traditional American food; Hamburgers and hot dogs, of course!  Michelle even stuck mini flags into each brownie, so adorable.  After tea, we played American bingo!  Michelle called out each state while we searched for them on our paper.  We played for Smarties-sweets like MnMs.  I had a lot of fun!

While playing, I ate my sweets.  So I had to resort to using chicken skin and cheese bits as markers.

                                Later that night, Dustin called me and told me to look out my window.  I was actually pretty creeped out.  All of a sudden, fireworks began to go off in the park right by my house!  The lights sprinkled across the sky for just a few minutes, but it made me feel like home!

                                I realized today that I am even more patriotic than I thought!  I am so thankful for my wonderful country where I was privileged enough to grow up in.  I know that our founding fathers were inspired by God to declare independence so that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints could be restored to this earth through the prophet, Joseph Smith.  I know that the United States of America is a divine country where everyone can live free lives and pursue the American Dream in any of the fifty states they choose.  I am extremely thankful for all of the soldiers who have ever fought, lived, or died for my freedom.  The United States of America is such a young country, but we have come so far in such a short period of time;  Not even two hundred years later, USA was the one providing Britain and France with war goods to defeat Hitler, just a small example.  We changed the whole entire world by bringing all sorts of remarkable revolutions and being an example of successful freedom.  So many miracles took place on American soil, and I couldn’t be more proud to be able to call myself American.