Day 15 - Independence Day

Independence Day, The 4th of July, the day we as a nation celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and our freedom from the British Empire in 1776. Our nation is 239 years old today!  

We were lucky enough to be able to spend our 4th of July in the 15th state of our nation - Kentucky!  Kentucky was admitted to the Union in 1792, just 16 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.  It wasn't until 1850 that California became a state!

Our morning started out at a park for a pancake breakfast that Matt was heading up as Bishop.  We got back to the house after breakfast for a really relaxing afternoon.  "So, You Think You Can Dance" and "Despicable Me"  were our sources of entertainment along with cat naps and bowls of popcorn.  Chicago style hot dogs and leftovers from the night before were for dinner - delish!  If you don't know what I am talking about when I say "Chicago Style", get on board people!  Get yourself some POPPY SEED BUNS (this is a must), some Nathan's or Hebrew National all beef wieners, and all of the following: yellow mustard, white onion, pickle spears, pepperoncinis, tomato slices, sweet relish and a slight sprinkling of celery salt.  Pile it high and eat - you will thank me for this!

Pancake Breakfast Time
L-R/ Top to Bottom:
Laurel and Megan (John and Cicely's daughter), Shale and the kids,
Cassidy & Grandma, Eli's cool sox, Eli and Chase (John and Cicely's son)
Grandpa with the kids

This diagram should help you put lunch together tomorrow

My nephew Jacob and his girl showed up during the afternoon which was nice because I hadn't had the chance to meet Natalie until today.  She and Jacob have front row seats at the Dave Matthews concert later this month - nice!

We all piled into various cars to head over to Fort Knox for the evening's festivities.  The drive wasn't short but it was beautiful.  So many hillsides covered with lush greenery.  Matt took us on the scenic route to our destination and I am so glad.  I really like Kentucky and would actually consider moving here.  The homes are nice although I am not a big fan of brick.  I haven't been out to Lexington so maybe the homes aren't made of brick out there??  I envision more "ranch" style homes out in the land of horses so maybe that would be the place for me if I were to consider moving. I think Cassidy would be in heaven if we were to move across the country only because we would be in the middle of horse country.  Eli, he probably wouldn't be too happy...at first.  Eli fits right in with anything and anyone so he'd be fine by the end of the first week.  Shale would miss the fact that surfing is only a 10 minute drive away currently but, I think he really likes the space that Kentucky has to offer.  I don't know why I am going on about all this as if we are packing up and moving next week!  No, we don't have any plans to uproot at this point so don't go getting your panties in a bunch (you know who you are)!

Matt gave us a quick driving tour of Fort Knox (this is where he works).  The building where he actually works is the second largest government building in the US, the Pentagon is #1 - pretty interesting!  We found some semi-dry grass to set up "camp" on for the evening while we waited for the 10 O'Clock hour to arrive.

The "Knox" Crew - July 4, 2015 - Fort Knox, KY
David & Marcia Hopkins, Mom & Dad Mount, Matt & Laurel, Shale-Me-Cassidy & Eli,
Cicely-Megan & Chase Kelley, Jacob & Natalie

Balloon rides, card games, cousins (Natalie, Cicely with Chase and Jacob)
Frisbee Dog show and the world champion Frisbee dog!

While we waited for the fireworks we played card games, talked, watched Frisbee dogs put on a show and just plain hung out.  At 10:00pm on the dot the show began and it was a fantastic  exhibition of vivid color explosions and music.  

Tired is an understatement of how I am feeling now.  After saying our good-byes to everyone for the night, Shale and I are back at the trailer and it is well past 1:00am.  Shale has popped the movie "Dan in Real Life" into the DVD player - I am not sure how long I am going to last.  The second half of our journey starts tomorrow....the drive back west.  We have decided to drive up to Indianapolis before really hitting the road tomorrow to see my Aunt Betty (she is 97), my brother-in-law Jeff, my nephew Brigham and his wife Kyliegh and baby Emerson since they were not able to make it down to KY with the rest of the family while we were in town.  We have some reorganizing to take care of and some general clean up to do prior to taking off and as late as it is now....I have no idea what time we will actually get on the road!

I am looking forward to spending some time with with my man- without the kids.  We lead busy lives and don't get a lot of "alone" time so this will be a nice change of pace for the next week.  We have a long trip ahead of us (no, we are not driving Route 66 back) and we don't really have a solid plan at the moment as to where we will end up each night so you'll have to keep following me to find out what we are up to!    Until tomorrow......

And then there were two.....Happy 4th of July!!