July Fourth

Celebrating Independence Day at home with homemade ice cream!

July 4, 2019

Sometimes I enjoy spending time with my family so much that I forget to capture much of the event on film. That was the case on the 4th of July this year, so I don't have some really great photos to share. But I do have some great memories!

We aren't always able to spend the Fourth together, due to my children's work schedules. We were fortunate this year, though. Dylan, Jake, and Mark all had the day off and Sarah only worked until 4:30. The only person unable to join us was Chris, who worked that evening at his new job at Haven Health, a skilled nursing facility. He was already on the job by the time Sarah got off work. And we missed  Jacob, of course, who lives in Mesa, three hours away.

Two extra-large pizzas for dinner. (Sarah and I just ate the toppings.)

We'd already barbecued chicken and made a potato salad when we all got together the previous Sunday, so I decided to keep it simple for the Fourth. I ordered two extra-large pizzas, something my family loves enough to eat daily, if they could, but rarely enjoyed over the years because their mom was usually eating low-carb.

As it happens, Sarah and I are both currently working on losing weight, so we ate just the toppings from our pizza slices. (Only the bread is a no-no.) Then the guys took our empty crusts and added freshly shredded mozzarella and some pepperoni from my fridge, turning the barren wedges into new slices of pepperoni pizza, which they then ate, so nothing went to waste!

And I'm happy to report that, so far, Sarah is down 28 lbs while I am down 26.6 lbs!

Dylan and Sarah battle it out on the old Shrek Super Party video game.

When the kids were small, we always took them to see fireworks, usually at Show Low High School. Before my mother died in April 2002, we often watched from my parents' front porch, since they lived across the street from the high school. After my dad remarried and moved to Lakeside, my brother Jeff's family built and moved into a house that was, literally, located at the end of the high school's football field. So we spent many years sitting in their driveway with the colorful explosions going off almost directly over our heads. Many times, the ash from the fireworks fell on our upturned faces and dusted our hair. It's been a couple of years now, since we've been able to do that, since Jeff and Dana moved to the Valley.

Mark plays a game on Dylan's Nintendo Switch, while Dylan and Jake

work their way through a Lord of the Rings video game from good old times.

Maybe we were a little spoiled by the convenience of watching the show from a private home, surrounded by family and friends, for so many years. Whatever the reason, we all agreed it wasn't worth it to fight the crowds at the high school, or wait in long lines of traffic to get home afterward. Instead, we opted to hang out together at the house and play games. Someday, when there are little children in the family again, I'm sure we'll feel more inspired to brave the crowds and traffic so they can experience the joy of exploding lights in the sky to celebrate our nation's beginning.

Old Crab, a game I invented for an old college class at Arizona State University.

(This shows only about one-quarter of the cards in the game.)

In lieu of fireworks, we spent the next few hours playing video games, and even an old card game I dragged out, which I'd made myself way back in my college days. It's a twist on Old Maid, which I called Old Crab. Rather than matching identical pairs, you match the mama animal to the baby animal (for children with special needs). It was silly and fun to play together.

Four nights earlier, after our weekly family dinner, we'd also played a version of Clue, based on The Legend of Zelda video games (a favorite of Dylan and myself). The suspects are characters from the Zelda video games, the locations are from the Zelda maps, and the very cool, tiny, bronze weapons are also from the games: the master sword, the fairy bow, the boomerang, the hookshot, the bombchu, and the megaton hammer. It was fun, but we kind of messed up a couple of things and didn't finish, so we'll have to try it again sometime.

After Sunday-night dinner, we played my new Legend of Zelda: Clue board game.

Dylan and Sarah strategize to solve which Zelda character committed the crime.

We ended our Independence Day Eve with my special homemade strawberry ice cream, sugar-free, of course! We all had such a good time that the kids ended up staying more than an hour past the time we'd originally planned to end (so everyone could get a good night's sleep for work the next morning). That's okay, they're all young and healthy, and I cherish every moment we enjoy in each others' company!

Mary, Jake, and Dylan playing Zelda Clue after Sunday night's dinner.