America the Beautiful

I have often written about how much I love America and am grateful for all this country has given me and my big fat Cuban family.

 

We had a lovely America 250 Celebration that began with walking in the local neighborhood kids’ parade.

It just doesn’t get any more wholesome than that. It was like being in one of those cheesy and heartwarming old-timey Coca-Cola ads.

 

Perfection.

My family of origin celebrated the 4th each year participating in a neighborhood block party.

 

My parents were absolute American patriots who became naturalized American citizens at the first opportunity and taught us all to proudly follow suit.

 

My mom would always make her famous Cuban Arroz Imperial which was the absolute hit of the potluck year after year.

Oh, the Cubanity!

As I shared earlier, we started the day with the Great Neighborhood Group Walk and spent the rest as God intended: swimming to catch a break from the heat and “consuming mass quantities” as my son-in-law Marc proved he was indeed the reigning “King of the Grill.”

 

 

 

 

Living with 3 kids under five made us re-think the idea of going to one of the crowded fireworks displays, but lucky for us the neighborhood pushed back HARD against the no-fireworks ordinance and we got quite the show right from the front yard and could see some beautiful fireworks from the balcony upstairs. So grateful for that!

 

One year old Molly was in bed before the sun even went down. Full disclosure: I was ready to crash out myself. Parade-walking kinda took my last bit of energy. Shut up. I know.

 

Max and Logan were amazed by the sparklers, which is always my favorite part of the whole Independence Day Shebang anyway, but that’s not important right now.

 

 

Max (4.5 years old) had a healthy skepticism about the safety of the hand held fire sticks, but 2.5 year old Logan was 100% in on that part of the adventure as Eric (you may call him PomPom) taught him how to hold and twirl the sparklers around.

We had all the fun and relaxed and ate well and were crazy-grateful for all of it.

Amy and Sebastian made an appearance even though they weren’t feeling well. 🥹

Asher decided he wanted to hang out with friends after his Trail Life Troop marched in their parade, so he and Adam and Alysha were unable to make it. (That’s his face on the far right.)

The Little Darbys, Jon & Ariana joined us in the early evening. They’re expecting our next granddaughter, Elizabeth Nicole exactly one month from today.

 

Call me Wella. ❤️💕❤️

I had so many big thoughts as I spun my little sparkler around: About what a gift it is to live in a free country. About what a beautiful life the Lord has gifted me with. I was abounding in gratitude and feeling supremely patriotic.

I’m very proud to state that Cubans are the most patriotic people you’ll ever meet.

It was a perfect and gorgeous night celebrating America’s 250th Birthday with the ones we love most.

Happy Birthday, America.🇺🇸

Thanks for making the Dream REAL for this little Cuban girl.

We are America-Maxxing so hard! 🇺🇸

My heart is so very full.

My beautiful daughter-in-law, Ariana made THE. BEST. CUPCAKES. EVER. (And that’s saying something.)

 

I have so much to say, but seriously, words are absolutely escaping me right now.

So, I’ll just go with my fallback: Pa’lante y con fe.

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