My name is Darla Baerg ....

And I used to blog regularly.

And I meant to set up some “archive” posts for last week while we were at family camp but that might have meant we got to family camp a few minutes late and that is totally unacceptable.  In fact … if you must know, we left Bill and Brittany at the Meet of Champs (she rocked!) so we could be at camp when the gates opened.

Nothing says “family” like arriving in two cars!

I also thought about posting … “off to family camp”, but that would have let the internet world know I wasn’t home and well, my mama has taught me better than that.

All that to say, I’m back to blogging.  We did have a great (although rainy) week at camp.

But since we got home …. a mere 48 hours ago, we’ve had a national holiday to celebrate.   We literally drove straight from camp to a neighborhood 4th of July festival that we’ve missed going to the last couple of years since we were at camp.  I really wanted to go because they shoot water out of a fire truck and when you have a six year old little boy, they think stuff like that is really cool.

Turns out 9 year old girls think it’s pretty fun too!

Since we were still kind of on vacation we “cheated” on our home church to go to another church in town that does “patriotic” really well.  I wanted to hear some 4th of July music and sing “God Bless America” … and we did just that.  They even handed us little flags to wave while we sang. We did the Pledge of Allegiance and heard from some military heroes.  They also sang all the songs from each military branch and had the servicemen and women from those branches stand when their song was played.  My mom always says she is never prouder to be next to my dad than when he stands for his service to the Army.  I clap a little louder for the Army song … I’m proud he’s my dad.  All that to say, I’m glad we went.

At 2:00 our neighborhood had their annual bike parade where we follow a fire truck.  Only the fire truck didn’t show … but we paraded anyway.  Jacob and Savannah decorated their bikes themselves but when we got to the parade Jacob’s tire was flat.  REALLY FLAT.  Like it had a giant slit in it.  Thankfully there was a scooter ready and waiting in the garage!

Our neighbors, the Jamesons, have seven kids and the eighth is on the way … soon.  And their 13 year old son MADE these airplanes out of a kit for his younger siblings to “ride” in the parade.  I awarded them “best of show”.

After a 2:00 parade in Houston the only thing one can do is JUMP IN THE POOL.  It was smokin’ hot outside and dinner by the pool was in order.  Brittany helped me make her favorite turkey burgers.  Turns out the gas grill at the pool had caught on fire at Memorial Day and was a goner.  Plan B was the old fashioned grill but we had no charcoal.  Plan C was to take them home to grill but we were out of propane.

THANK GOODNESS FOR GEORGE FOREMAN!!!  In no time flat I cooked them and walked them over to the pool … it’s cooler cooking them inside anyway.  :)

The day ended with a bang (ba ba boom) when we went to City Center which is just blocks from our house for their fireworks show.  They weren’t the high up in the air kind but it was kind of neat because we were very, very close to them.

I hope your Fourth of July holiday was great too!  Gotta go … I have a key lime pie in the oven….just squeezed the limes myself.  Makes me sound like a real June Cleaver doesn’t it?

Please don’t be mistaken.

I’ll let you know how it turns out!