4th of July

I don't think I've enjoyed a 4th of July as much as this one! After having been gone for so long in Europe, it left me hungry for more time with Natalie. She's a full-time nurse up in Salt Lake, and I'm living down in Provo working full-time, so needless to say, our schedule's don't really work well together. At best I get to spend just a few hours with her in the evening.
Yesterday, Natalie had the day off, so I spent pretty much my whole day with her, which is always a pleasure. She started her day with a 5k run. I showed up to watch the parade with Natalie and her family which surprisingly enough was quite fun. We collected quite a few tatoo's and candy, so it was quite "fruitful." After the parade, Natalie and I went to check her time on the 5k run. To her surprise, she took 2nd in her division! She got the silver medal and she didn't even know it when she came in! How grateful I was that she didn't invite me to run with her family in that run!
After that we went to the annual swimming party at Uncle Barry's house. We had a good time there, although I felt kind of bad. Natalie is the youngest of her clan, and she has a lot of nephews and neices that just adore her. Whereas with our family, everyone lives out of town, and we don't even have very many cousins in Utah, so it's a lot quieter than what she's used to! So, after the swimming party Natalie ditched out so we could enjoy some great American hamburgers with her family and watch the fireworks. She has a lot of neices and nephews that made lighting firewords so much fun!
Finally, to finish the evening, Natalie and I went to Murray Park with her parents and sat on a blanket watching the fireworks. The best part is that we cuddled! I've always struggled with being "affectionate" in front of parents, but for some reason, I don't with Natalie! Needless to say, cuddling while watching fireworks turned out to be the ultimate combo!
I thought a lot about Michael on the 4th. I know he's "just a dentist," but really, he's a soldier for this great country, and I'm grateful for the men who sacrifice so much today for the protection of this great country. Everytime I travel outside of the US (which isn't too often), it just makes me that much more patriotic! I love the United States of America! On my flight home from Denmark, I missed my flight to Amsterdam. So I bought a ticket for later that day. I sat next to a woman on that flight who found out that I was from America. She was of course Danish, and so I was speaking Danish. She could hear an accent, but couldn't pin it down!!!! She guessed German, which I was ecstatic about! Anyway, we were talking about America, and she told me that she'll never travel to America again because she doesn't like the thought of having to register herself, so the government can track her. During that conversation I began teaching her about how the United States came to be from the time of the Reformation. It was kind of deeper than the average "Restoration" lesson. But, it was neat to be able to say that God founded this great country for the purpose of restoring His gospel plan for His children. No where else could He have restored His gospel!
Well, sorry for typing so much today, as you can see, my 4th was quite eventful!