Alabama Jubilee

Kara and I drove to Decatur yesterday to see the hot air balloons at the Alabama Jubilee.  Unfortunately, they were out of cotton candy, and Kara didn't want to go up 50 feet in a hot air balloon with the other kids.  But we still had fun.  The best part - the fireworks at the end.  Kara is very sensitive to loud noises, so she never sees fireworks.  At almost ten, she decided she was going to give it a shot and try it.  She loved it!  She plugged her ears during most of it, though.  Watching them through her eyes made them even more magical.

This was also special to me.  It felt so...American.  Growing up overseas, we always felt, well, foreign.  People only ever talked about how much longer they had before they got to go to "the states."  To this day I'm still jealous of military that get to spend all their tours in the states.  We were living in England, but it wasn't ours.  It was beautiful, people were kind, but it wasn't exotic or fabulous, it was foreign.  And we were foreign in it.  Once a year, we would have a carnival in a field I don't remember ever going to except for that carnival.  I think it was around July 4th.  It felt so American.  Fireworks, cotton candy, rides, etc.  I loved the way it felt.  And soaked in the American-ness.

Now every time I'm in the south (a place, mind you, that is super American), I soak up the American-ness.  The flags, the love of history, real live stars in the sky, warmth, fire flies, farms, barns, and I could go on.

This Jubilee was special to me.  And I love that Kara gets to grow up here.

See that balloon on the right?  That's as high as it went with
kids in it.  Kara still didn't want to go.

We loved watching them light up!

There was a live band with great music.

Watching them light up was even cooler in the dark!

I think she looks like my mom here.

And she looks like her father here!  lol.

Then they started putting the balloons away one by one.

And we waited for the fireworks.

Almost time!

Then all the bright lights shut off at once and we all counted down.  But in a southern accent of course!

TEEN!

NAH - N!

and so on.  :-)

The fireworks were beautiful, but not at all photogenic.

We don't celebrate because all those Americans are dead, but we celebrate the life we get to live because of their sacrifice.  We rejoice because they didn't die so we'd be sad and live sad lives.  They died so we can LIVE.