It is so wonderful being in the United States for the Fourth of July!

This year, I had more than my freedom to be thankful for. We were able to spend a little time with David’s family, barbecue with a few great SGU friends and to top it off, Redlands puts on an amazing show.

The day began at 8 a.m. as we spent some time with David’s aunt and uncle at their ward park party. As part of the program, we got to hear Jacob play his trumpet and the crowd went completely still when he played Taps in memory of those who died to defend our country.

Next was the Redlands Fourth of July Parade. Since the people at the local paper probably wanted a day off, they asked the freelancer (AKA moi) to write something up on the parade. There isn’t much to 40 groups marching a mile in 90-degree sun, so I hoped to just give a few people a fun fourth where they got their names and pictures in the paper. You can read it here and see the slideshow here. I also did many of the preview stories leading up to the day’s festivities and it was awesome getting (and sharing) that behind-the-scenes glimpse at a big community event.

David was able to join me on this one and, after I had accosted as many people as I could for interviews, we wandered around the park taking in all the sights and smells. There were plenty of food choices, freebies and fun to be had beneath all those booths. The overheated pregnant reporter and husband decided to indulge in a frozen strawberry lemonade.

After writing up the story, the heat and maybe a little dehydration knocked me out cold for a nice skillet nap.

Then it was barbecue time with the buddies!

David had fun inventing his own rub recipe for his steak and I have to admit, the sweet and tangy blend turned out pretty good.

That night’s stadium show at the local university was the best I have ever seen. Almost 12,000 people packed into that place. You can see the newspaper’s slideshow here. Just as we got to our reserved bleacher seats, a group of four WWII fighter planes circled around the stadium. Next were the parachuters. Then, as the sun set we listened to old-time rag tunes from the Redlands Fourth of July Band and Pacific Avenue got the crowd dancing with some fun classic rock covers. I even got a shocking and unexpected shoutout for the articles I wrote as the announcer rambled off a list of thank yous.

The fireworks show that followed was the best I have ever seen. There isn’t any way a cell phone can do it justice, but you can watch a few YouTube clips here.

If you have 25 minutes, the whole show in it’s blurry cell-phone glory is here.

I knew this fireworks company was crazy, but man did they deliver! I’ll never forget sitting in that stadium singing along with God Bless America. For those thousands of people, there was no doubt that we love this land. God bless the USA!

Apparently we are too cool for selfies 🙂

Colton’s first Fourth! Little man was a trooper and fell asleep in the middle of the fireworks show. Where did they get this kid!?!