Friday, July 5, 2013

A Little Slice of Heaven



Happy Belated Fourth, y'all! I hope your day was as great as mine. Mine was actually quite heavenly, thank you for asking.

Lately I've been craving a vacation. Like a true, float on some water in the sun, get a little red and crispy when you get so relaxed that you forget to reapply the SPF, and leave all your cares tucked not so neatly at home for a few days vacation. I'm pretty sure our all-inclusive, week long honeymoon spoiled me for most vacations. Not having to worry about an agenda, or meals, or which fancy drink I should try because they're all free, is so incredibly priceless and enchanting. But with that being said, no other trips really holds a candle. I guess the moral of that story is that all of my future trips need to be to exotic islands at all-inclusive resorts for nothing short of a week. Done and done. It's not rocket science.

Annnnnnddddddd, I'm back to reality. Just like that.

So until the day when I can be whisked off to Fiji or Bora Bora, I'm trying to fill the longing in my chest with a few more down to earth, low key vacays. So Wednesday evening, aka Fourth of July Eve, the Hubs and I had our own little date night cookout and it was delightful. We shared some Cajun crab dip before I began baking my first ever apple pie. #Merica. We then fired up the grill and had a little summertime feast. Brats, fresh tomato and avocado slices, super sweet and local corn on the cob, mac'n'cheese, and apple pie. It was a little slice of summer heaven; no passports required.

To celebrate the actual holiday, we piled in the car before 9:30am and headed to Winnebago, the small town where my grandparents live, for their annual parade. There's just something so patriotic about a 4th parade in a small town that's surrounded by farm fields. #MericaSquared

I proudly waved my American flag as the veterans rode by, we caught lots of candy tootsie rolls and dum dums, we ate freeze pops that some floats brilliantly give out in the heat, and we drank delicious, cold chocolate milk. Ahhhh. Heaven abounds. From there we lounged on the porch for about 4 hours and ate wonderful food and shared stories. Not a care in the world. Well, except for my ridiculous, irregular sunburn forming on my back. #OneShoulderDressFail

And for the grand finale, we hit up the downtown fireworks. The finale rocked my world and I could feel every final pop in my chest. Once again, I waved my humble little American flag in grand approval.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still on the hunt for a relaxing vacation that includes water and sunshine, preferably combined, but yesterday was good for the soul. It was a small glimpse of carefree, homegrown fun. And I soaked up every last bit.


My family swears by these firework glasses, well more so my uncle, but he insists that we all wear them. Every year. I clearly was trying to look hard. Looking hard in paper glasses is apparently not possible.


Semi-unrelated to the post, but we got to eat our first 2 tomatoes yesterday from our garden. Delicious. You don't get much more local than your own yard.



Kaboom!

 
 
Kaboom with firework glasses. Kaboom-zazzle!

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