the fourth!

today, i just liked!
and feel it necessary to take a minute to express the gratitude i feel for the country i call home... what a privilege to live where freedom is so valued.  i know the usa is not perfect by any means and our country has a history of just horrific events.  but here we are, able to enjoy so many freedoms because of the precious price many have paid.  i never want to lose gratitude for things like being able to pray and study God's Word openly on a college campus like i did throughout my college career, or for the ability to vote for presidents and vote on laws that are important, or for the freedom to speak freely and openly, to uphold any opinion i want without fear, to write and put forth the thoughts and musings on this blog, even!  i know these things did not come without the highest costs, and i'm truly thankful.  glad that this day is set aside.  seems to unify us all in some small way.

^^ my day started out with pancakes!  whipped up some red, white, and blue ones!  (i think bein a mom would be fun... little kids would appreciate those bad boys so much better than my diva dad who comments on how unnecessary the food coloring is for our bodies hah!) but nothing says 'murica like patriotically colored hot cakes, am i right?!

^^ you'd serve yourself well to invest in a hammock.  our fam went to my aunt's boo-thang's (; lakehouse for the day, and this hammock was so dreamy!

we're speichs, so a holiday = puttin out all the stops in festive-wear! haha we love it.

hahaha!  dad was helpin steve with a fixing project that required them to stand in the lake, so they put on these little get-ups...

^ DIII-VAHHH.  haha!  i love my dad, goofy guy!  my favorite part of the whole day, though, was in the morning after breakfast.  i sat at the counter while he worked on making a side dish for the day, and i played a bunch of patriotic oldies from his phone and we both really got into that air guitar and singing like the wayho girl.  we were pumpin everything from miley's "party in the usa" to "surfin usa."  but our favorite to sing to was definitely tom petty, "american girl." wayhooo!

^ you can't really tell in this picture, but the boats were out, man!

^ aunt wendy.  no one else would put up with me as well as she does! haha, i really like to tease her...  at every family gathering, she's come to expect that i will hack her instagram account and put the worst-quality picture with THE cheesiest hashtags. haha, we love it!  it's become a family joke & today was no exception! (:  she's a good sport.  (and no one's following her except our fam, okay?! ha)  today she called michael buble "michael boob-lah"... mom busted a gut on that one.  

^ my sister's a hottie.  and gracie dog loved today. ^

that's all.

hope you had a happy fourth!  hooray for america!
**last year's fourth of jules blogged here.  and dad says if you don't get goosebumps when you listen to this by ray charles, you're not human... so..