Gotta love independence...

First off, I had one of the best days I have had in a very long time yesterday! It was Jess's 30th birthday and I got to spend most of the day celebrating with her! Our friend April and I took her out for some brunch and cool coffee/smoothie drinks and then a whole mess of us went out for dinner at The Thompson House in Jackson. It was so much fun and the food was utterly amazing! Not to mention the fact that we walked out of the restaurant after dinner and got to enjoy some fantastic fireworks! 

As you may know... today is Independence Day. I enjoy the concept of independence. Being about to do things as you choose to, seems like a pretty darn good deal to me. I know that I appreciate my independence, though I think there are some pretty shady parts of our journey to reaching it. We won't go there today though... it's a day for celebration!

As is tradition, I watched the Tamworth 4th of July Parade today with my family. It was actually pretty excited because both of my grandparents came to the parade, something that hasn't happened in a few years. It was a gorgeous morning with sunshine and everything and we had an awesome spot to watch from. The parade was much shorter than usual, mainly because there weren't a million fire trucks at the end of the line and that was totally okay with me! There were some decent floats and some lovely horses, so that made it good for me!

After the parade, we attended the "Family Day" events for a couple of minutes. The black clouds were rolling in and the obligatory 4th of July shower was going to happen any minute. After that, we grabbed some lunch and then went to pick up my mom so we could go to my friend Caroline's book signing! If you are interested in learning more about her amazing novel, check out: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/ride-on-the-curld-clouds/6870856

I was the lucky recipient of an advance copy, so I've read it and loved every minute of it! I would especially recommend it to those who love both Shakespeare and horses. It's full to the brim of both!

All of that goodness, topped off with a family BBQ at my grandparents house rounded out my 4th of July celebration. I think we'll be attending some more fireworks this evening and then it's back to reality tomorrow. Hopefully a reality that continues to include that big, yellow, bright thing in the sky. I missed it while it was on vacation for the month of June and would like to see it back full time for the rest of the summer.