God Bless America!

I love the good ol' US of A!! It really hit home this year how blessed I am to live in this great nation. When I turn on my water faucet, water comes out and I can choose if it's hot or cold. When I flip on a light switch, the light turns on usually. I can practice my religion freely. I can vote to choose my leaders. It really is sort of a miracle all the freedoms and blessings we enjoy here. I'm so grateful for all the people who have gone before me and sacrificed so much so that I can have the freedoms I do today.

So I started off this grand day by running the longest run of my life so far...8 miles. My friend Heather joined me. It was a perfect way to kick off the day though it almost killed me. I was a little slow going the rest of the day. Here I am after my shower icing my knees.
Deeds came up for the weekend to hang out with me. We went to Ruth's Diner for breakfast which is up Emigration Canyon. It is one of the restaurants here in Salt Lake that has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. We have been wanting to go there forever, so we finally made it happen.
I'm usually a savory breakfast person (eggs, bacon, hash browns, and ketchup please!), but for some reason that morning was feeling like I needed to go sweet. But the main dish they featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives was their biscuits and gravy. What is a girl to do?! So I got both...the french toast breakfast and the biscuits and gravy breakfast. Leave it to me to order 2 entrees! I had just ran 8 miles...I deserve it, right?!? Deeds got the chicken fried steak, and we shared the biscuits and gravy. Everything was divine! Definitely recommend it!
After breakfast, Deeds and I headed downtown to try and find gravity hill. We had heard about this spot by the capitol building where it looks like you are going uphill, but if you put your car in neutral, you roll forward and go against gravity. We never really found the right spot, or maybe it doesn't really exist. It was very funny though...we would go forward a few yards, stop, put it in neutral and just sit there...then drive forward another few yards and do the same thing over and over. We came home and researched it a little better, so we'll have to go back and try again sometime.

That afternoon, we went to the dollar movie and saw Rio. I had never heard of it, but Deeds had wanted to see it. I was very pleasantly surprised! It was a very cute little cartoon! Loved it!

Deeds and I had been on a mission all weekend to find patriotic t-shirts and had struck out everywhere. We made one last stop at a different Walmart and hit the jackpot. Deeds bought this little beauty along with this $0.97 hat. Nothing like Lady Lib on the back of a chopper! Perfect!
We met up with the Grossen's up a Dan's parent's house for cul-de-sac of fire. Jack was so, so wired on cotton candy and treats. It was hilarious to watch him run around so excited for the festivities. He had fallen earlier in the day and gotten the sweet goose egg on his head.
Little Buggy had to go to bed before all the fun began, but I at least got to kiss her face a couple times before Amy put her to bed. She was so tired! They had already had a full day of fun before Deeds and I got there.
Here are a few other pictures of my Fourth of July. What a great day! God Bless America!!