'On this day of Independence, on this Independence Day!'

Another 4th of July has come . . . and gone. This year we celebrated with Buddy and Kay and Kay's family. Buddy and Kay are having a pretty busy Summer, so between their schedule and ours over the next six weeks it looked like we wouldn't be able to get together. So, a holiday came just in handy! We went over there about noon, and figured to stay a few hours. Guess what?! We ended up staying eight hours.

Mom and Kay worked with some of Kay's brothers and sisters on their family tree. Dad went fishing in the pond. Lizzy and I played music and sang with Buddy. It was really fun, as we sang through tons of the old songs that he has written and a bunch of new ones. We even sang through When Dragons' Hearts Were Good --- that's the song that convinced the two of us that Buddy was really great. It's also the first song that we ever heard him perform.

Buddy pulled out his whips and tomahawks later in the afternoon --- by this time all the family had left. He's got targets set up on the edge of the woods for them, so he taught Pop how to crack a whip. Buddy even snuffed out a candle for us! Elizabeth has always wanted to throw a tomahawk. She's great at it! She took to it like a fish takes to water. It was pretty cool. She could hit about every four out of five throws.

We watched a show with Buddy that he's working on. Really cool. And we all had dinner together! All in all, it was the best 4th of July ever.