A Fun-filled Fourth!

In the morning we went to Palm Point Park, which is just east of Gainesville. The park is fairly small (the "hike" only took a few minutes) but the surroundings are beautiful. We made sure to wear a lot of insect repellent. We saw quite a few birds and some other neat sights, including an alligator. It was certainly a humid day but the heat and humidity were quite bearable in the shade. I'm still amazed at how green everything is here even though we've been here for 3 years. I guess it takes a while to wash some of that desert dust off.



We celebrated the day with a lot of red, white, and blue.


Jared's nails remained their natural nail color but the girls all had their nails colored.


Strawberries, blueberries, and marshmallows. Lily just ate the marshmallows. How do kids know and prefer what is processed sugar?


Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and blue and red M&Ms.


Lily's hair.


Anwyn's hair.

For dinner we had a nice barbecue with a couple families in our ward. We had good food and a great time, including time playing Rock Band and lighting fireworks.



Here are a couple videos from the day.


Hiking in the morning. Notice how loud it is. The insects and other animals all combined into an almost-deafening sound. It reminded me of my father's stories about the jungles of Panama.


Fireworks and families.