For the 4th of July every year,
Tom, Stacy and family travel to Provo to celebrate.
They stay with Grit and Sherry,
they run in the Freedom Festival's annual 5K and 10K
and they join with other Young families for food and fun.
And the 4th is always capped off for them with Stadium of Fire.
While they were up north this year,
Jake attended EFY
and Sydney attended Young Ambassador Camp.
On their way to all of this, they stayed with us a couple of nights.
Tom, Jake and Roger golfed Saturday morning
and the girls shopped.
Stacy found an apostrophe for her Young's Diner wall
and Syd found some darling clothes at Urban Renewal.
The golfers met us for lunch
for the famous wedge at Player's Grill.
That night, we had French dip, potato salad and Nielsen's custard.
The darling Young 6
Max and Luke
They're looking more alike again.
They're such fun boys!
They're such fun boys!
They love their basketball "shorts"(?) and Sydney says
they have to be coaxed to take them off to wash them.
The twins headed down to see the golfers
when they came by our house.
The girls had great fun shopping, even though the temp was 113!
Sunday, we all went to church,
then took pics when we got back home before dinner.
My precious Stacy
These two are kindred spirits!
Stacy loves her daddy!
The boys had already changed (they're quick!),
but we took a pic with these super grandkids.
We grilled salmon and had lemon pie,
and listened to Syd sing
to help her pick her audition song for the YA Camp,
(she is a bona fide talent!)
and then they were off.
Roger and I spent a quiet 4th.
It was actually quite lovely.
We went for a 2 for 1 smoothie at Kneader's in the morning,
then returned home to read until around 4,
when we went to Texas Roadhouse for ribs.
We then went to the nice, cool theater (it was well over 100 degrees on the 4th in St. George)
and saw, Man of Steel.
The Youngs had highly recommended it to us,
and it was exciting and entertaining!
After the movie, we returned home to watch the music and fireworks shows in NYC and Washington, DC on network TV.
They're wonderful fireworks, and we get to watch them in the AC!
I close this post with a quote from a good book,
the one I read all afternoon on the 4th and was
recommended by my sisters Kay and Joan,
called The Good American, by Alex George.
The author is an Englishman now living in Missouri, and I think some of his observations about the USA are thought provoking and so appropriate to think about at this time of year.
Writing this book was an illuminating experience. It shone a light on my own feelings about moving here. Despite the long and generally amicable relationship between England and America (if we pass discreetly over the War of Independence), people still relish the little things that divide us, like the funny way I talk.
But having lived here for some time now, I prefer to consider what unites us. I practiced law for eight years in England, and when I arrived here I had to requalify as an attorney. While I was studying for the bar exam I learned that much of the American legal system was (unsurprisingly) based on the English one. But there remain important differences. Many of the rights of which Americans are so rightly proud—freedom of speech, of religion, of association—are enshrined in the amendments to the United States Constitution. England has no equivalent. We rely instead on cloudier concepts, on an unwritten constitution, shrouded by centuries of jurisprudence.
But I like the American system more. As a writer, I think that the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are two of the most exciting and inspiring documents ever written. The principles and beliefs upon which this country was founded are unimpeachable.
I am a lawyer and a novelist, so I have a reverence for words. They are the tools of both of my trades. America’s founding documents provide the guiding light by which much of the world sets its course for the future.
In 1630, as he stood on the deck of the Arabella just before landing in New England for the first time, John Winthrop preached a sermon that talked of the new settlement as a “city on a hill.” Winthrop knew that the eyes of the world would be upon them.
Nothing has changed. The world still looks to America for hope, for inspiration and for guidance. It is one reason people have always dreamed of coming here, by fair means or foul.
May America remain as a "city on a hill."
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