Happy Fourth of July

We celebrated the Fourth of July a bit early this year by attending Yankee Doodle Pops on the State Capital lawn in Des Moines on July 2nd. The symphony played patriotic music and after dark there were fireworks. We actually could see 2 displays because there were fireworks after the Iowa Cub's game, and the stadium was close enough to see their fireworks. (Ken also took the big kids to fireworks on July 3rd, but Anna and I skipped those.)

Of course the best part of the evening was getting together with friends. This is the S* family, who has a boy close to Matthew in age, a girl close to Carolyn in age and a boy about 18 months older than Anna. Ken went to Kindergarten with B., and then met again in Boy Scouts and at the University of Iowa. This couple is among our group of friends who attend a U of I football game most years. They are frequent fliers on the blog.


Here are Anna and A. They played hide and seek together around the statue of Abe Lincoln. VERY CUTE, then A* shared his "glow sticks" with Anna. Too bad the days of arranged marriages are over.....kidding of course.



Here is the Beautiful State Capitol (I almost called it the "Old Capitol", but that is in Iowa City where I went to college):


Here is the view toward the symphony, before and after dark:



The best thing that was performed by the symphony was a song that honored each of the parts of the U.S. Military. All current and former members of the military and their family were asked to stand when their area was mentioned/their song was played. Add that to the great music (Stars and Stripes forever a personal favorite) and I felt very patriotic. Of course on the actual 4th of July we didn't do much to celebrate except attend church. (you know - freedom of religion and all :)