Flag Day

Wow! What a day!!! This is a warning to all - THIS IS GOING TO BE A VERY LONG POST! Most of it though is pictures. And Kevin from Texas - you may want to get tough for a little visual on the previous post that caused you to vomit in your mouth!!

So our friend Brian is in the Army. He does all this patriotic stuff that is pretty new to us. Sad - but true. (Shhh.... don't tell him that though - he might think less of us!!) This being Flag Day and all his VFW post was doing a flag retiring "ceremony" - I guess you would call it - today. They were folding 1000 flags this morning and asked if we wanted to join in the fun! Since I have never folded a flag in my life - or if I have it probably wasn't properly done - I thought this would be fun for our little family! So off we went. Dallin was sometimes interested and sometimes not. I learned how to properly fold a flag. (Are you proud of me dad???!!!) There were flags of ALL sizes!! There were several that had to be done outside because they were 20 feet by 30 feet or something huge like that!!

This is how huge it was AFTER it was folded!!

Dallin really enjoyed helping put the flags in the truck that was taking them to their end.

1000 flags is a lot of flags!!!

Then we came home and did a little yard work and other fun stuff!

This evening we went to the mall where they have a small version of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall like the one in DC. I really miss DC. It was SO neat to walk down this wall.

I have never attended anything like this before. There was a lot of talking. A lot. Which is fine for an adult - but difficult for children... Maggie got a little bored and decided to do her favorite pastime now (this is where Kevin from TX needs to toughen up a bit!!!)

She just looks at you when she sticks her finger in her mouth, like - "YA - whatchu gunna do 'bout it!!!!!" Little stinker!!

Then they took a flag and pulled it all apart. Maybe you all knew this - but this is totally new to me. They separate the blue part from the rest of the flag and then pull the stripes apart...

I am sure there is a title for what they are doing here - shooting their guns is what I am going to call it. Whatever it's called it was pretty cool.

Then they took the flag to be burned. After that everyone got to carry a flag to get burned... The main man speaker dude (aren't I just SO eloquent with words!!!) had talked earlier, during the lots and lots o' talking part, about how you carry the flag like a wounded friend...

When Dallin got up to the front, Brian was there to take his flag to be burned.

Did you notice that they UNFOLD the flag to put it on the stick to burn it?? Ya - but I'm not bitter that we got up early this morning to fold 1000 flags that get unfolded... Nope - not at all!!

What an amazing day! And then - on our way home we encountered this perfect sunset!!!! Now I edited most of the pictures from today to make them brighter - more contrast - whatever... BUT THIS PICTURE IS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA!!!!! What a perfect ending to a magnificent day!!!!

This sunset is especially for my cute little sunset buddy - Karyssa! I love you girl!!!!