Sunday, July 5, 2009

Happy Birthday America!

Yesterday was the great day we celebrate our freedom and our country. In our family, we also celebrate the day grandpa got shot down in France. (Maybe this has something to do with why my kids are so morbid and think about straps breaking and falling to their deaths while parasailing!) In truth, we are really celebrating that he lived through this death defying event. Matthew summed it up eloquently on Facebook: "65 years ago today, my grandpa Moseley was shot down behind German lines in Normandy. A French farmer risked everything to hide grandpa (who pretended he was deaf/mute to fool German soldiers) for over two months until he could escape to the advancing allied lines. Grandpa (age 88) is still going strong. I have a lot to be grateful for today."

To celebrate, we got together, barbequed, made homemade raspberry ice cream with raspberries out of Roxanne's garden, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs (Addie loved the hot dogs and ate at least three whole ones, maybe four), and set off fireworks. Hillary's kids played in the water and took pictures of anything and everything. This probably sounds pretty much like anyone else's July 4th celebrations but another thing we do is probably unlike most everyone else. Each of us take the opportunity to call or trek over to grandpa's to visit him, thank him for his service and generally bask in the blessing of having him with us.
Here's Shawn playing games on his new Samsung Impression cell phone. He and Sonia got these new phones the day before. I purchased the same phone about a week earlier but didn't know half the stuff about the new phone that Shawn did. Here I was trying out the camera portion and I've also figured out how to send it to my email so I can save the picture to my computer. There's probably an easier way... like using the USB cable that came with the phone?
We also had an unplanned, impromptu birthday celebration for Sami. She will be officially 4 tomorrow. In this picture she has on the new outfit she received from Sonia and Shawn (dress, necklace, flip-flops).
Who knew that one of the highlights of shooting off fireworks would be making shadows on the garage door!
Happy birthday America and thanks for having your birthday when it's warm. Happy Fourth of July grandpa, we're proud of you!

3 comments:

Sonia said...

Bummed I missed out, but I had already promised Brownie we would go out. Glad it was such a good time and that Shawn went.

Leslie Moseley said...

I'm glad Shawn came too and hope you and Brownie had a good time.

Cheryl said...

Wow, your dad was shot down in Germany and lived through it. That is pretty amazing! I love your posts Leslie, you are so funny.