Our last 4th...

It was our last Fourth of July for the next few years.
Technically, there will be a fourth of July in Ecuador but it will not be the Fourth of July.

The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. When I was a kid, we didn't really do big celebrations for holidays. My parents were in a phase of being anti traditions so even Christmas and Easter weren't really celebrated. Except for the Fourth of July!

For the Fourth we would gather up our friends and take the boat out onto the Willamette River. We'd spend the day boating around, eating and then watch the fireworks in downtown Portland. Those were some of my happiest memories as a kid.

So I love when the fourth rolls around. Gathering together with family, the warm summer evenings (granted in Oregon our evening usually were cold and had about a 50/50 chance of rain) and the boom of fireworks always gets me feeling nostalgic.

I was thinking yesterday about how this will be our last one at home for the next several years. It makes me a little sad. However, this won't be our first one overseas. Jake and I have celebrated America's Independence in Japan and Ukraine. We've purchased fireworks and shot them off on the beach, in both countries. So Jake and I are looking forward to starting our own traditions for the Fourth of July, in Ecuador!

Happy Independence Day (yesterday) and happy last day of school at the School of Hope (which I was told that the actual name of the school is the Hacienda of Hope Christian Academy)!

Yesterday we celebrated by spend time with family and watching the large fireworks that go off just in front of my dad's nursing home.