4th of July 2026.

Happy 4th of July! Thankful for the USA and for this wonderful place to live. From everything to the entire country, state of Iowa, our town, to our very house and yard, we have much to be grateful for! We moved almost exactly three years ago (basically across the street from our prior house of 8+ years) and this house has been a sweet blessing in many ways, and a huge way of that is filling it with people we love. Love our annual neighbors and friend party with smores, sparkers, and fireworks!

Kley loves lighting all the fireworks! We gave him this flag shirt for Father's Day and knew he would love it for all the 4th of July festivities. :)

De Jong/Guthmiller celebration with smores and sparklers too- such fun! Love my favorite four!

Kley's grandma lives right down the street from us and it's great! Glad she could join in too.

Sparklers with Will and Gerrit!

Love cousin time! Kley has one sister and they moved to town a year ago and it's been so fun to have cousins close by! 

The actual 4th of July weekend was a bummer because we were supposed to head to Des Moines, but I had been having some strange symptoms for a couple weeks which culminated in an ER visit the night we were supposed to leave with a kidney stone. It didn't pass right away, so we ended up having to stay home. While we were sad to miss out on our original plans, we got a few house projects done and got some fun time with Papa, Amma, and Great Grandma too and special activities like pool (3 days in a row- it's been warm!), minions movie, and going out for supper. Thankful for the USA!