Yeah, We're Still Here. . . .

OK, I know.  I can hear it now.  "Where have you been?"  One answer to that is, "Chauffeuring!"   I've driven more miles in the last month than I did all last year, or it feels like it at least.  Cub Scout day camp, the beach, the Getty museum, the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Upland High at least twice a day, at least one of the three church buildings in our stake at least twice a week, Target several times a week, the grocery store several times a week, one of three malls in the area at least once a week, and CRAZY every day!  (In a good way, of course!)  The last four weeks have flown by, and the in the last post you were introduced to Marleen, our fabulous German student.  Sad to say, she left on Saturday.  She became like one of our own, and we hope she comes back soon, or that we can go visit her in Germany!!  Oh, and also sad to say, my favorite camera bit the dust, or I should say, swallowed the river.  Brooke took it with her to Magic Mountain and it got deluged on the water ride, never to recover.  Soooo, the quality of my pictures is definitely not as good with our little Nikon.  Oh well, at least we still have a camera. Which leads to these pictures from Independence Day.

We had flag raising and pancake breakfast sponsored by the Boy Scouts.  This is actually one of my favorite events of the year because to me it is a great way to start the day--really thinking about what it means to live in this land of freedom, and the responsibilities that come with that freedom.  Then comes really good food donated by businesses in the community and cooked and served by the Boy Scouts to raise money for Scout camp.  John did a great job serving eggs, and Ryan did great with the pancakes.  We had a really good turnout, too.




The pictures below are from the Ontario parade that Dallin has marched in for the past two years with Upland High School Regiment.  

Marleen watches with some interest as the mostly cars and horses, with the occasional marching band comes by.  She commented later that she likes how Americans take pride in our country, and not in a bad kind of way that she said some Germans do.

The one and only float in the whole parade.

The boys thought these jeeps were the coolest--climbing up one another and then slowly coming back down.  They were pretty cool!

Dallin's in one of these lines somewhere, but he's on the opposite end, so it was hard to get a good picture of him. He's playing the big trumpet looking thing called a mellophone.  The band sounded great, and was by far the best band in the parade. They should be, considering how many hours they've already put in this summer.

This was very moving--soldiers in uniform rode in the front. . . .

And this re-enactment was done by real men--at first I thought they were mannikins, they stood so still.  This brought me to tears and cheers, along with the rest of the crowd.

This is a blurry picture, I know, but it's the best I've got.  We always watch fireworks to top off the day, and had a great vantage point. . .

As evidenced by this shot of Noah enjoying the display.

Anyway, that about sums it up for us for the past month.  Now it's on to Dance Festival.

(Look for a post about that next week!)