Happy July 4th

Thank you to the best husband in the world for staying home with our three "babies" (dogs). One is almost 14 years old and quite sick this weekend - preventing the two of us from traveling together. But my terrific husband knows how much I love having the opportunity to see my family and especially my nieces - so he stayed home with our dogs and nursed them back to health, while I drove to Altoona, PA.

Marissa didn't quite stay awake for the fireworks. We watch them from Gram's front porch rather than deal with the noise and crowds at Blands Park. Although we miss some of the ground displays, it is worth not having to enter the park!!! I remember watching fireworks from the same front porch as a child (all the cousins would play before the fireworks display would start). Years later, we are on the same front porch, this time with great-grandchildren! This year was quiet, Gram, Aunt Gloria, Heidi + kids, and my family were there. David, Heather and I had a good laugh trying to "find" Gram's house. We took an unusual exit to avoid the Bland's park traffic and had to rely on the GPS system to take us on some up and down dirt roads (we felt like we were driving off a cliff some of these roads were so steep). Hey - Subaru's all wheel drive works and although we were clueless as to our location, at least the car wasn't!