with You on the 4th of July

and here is a little video of our festivities this 4th of July!

on the 4th of July from sharon mckeeman on Vimeo.

I love  this song by Shooter Jennings and I blare it NONSTOP every July 4th. It’s the one constant amidst very differing Independence days we have share all over the country…

Each one has been amazing and just the perfect thing for that year. I love that they are all so different for us unlike, Christmases that normally stick very close to certain traditions.

I can remember each time I have been with him on the 4th of July. Before him I was scared of fireworks and didn’t really get what the big deal about this summer holiday was. After him the 4th day of July has always been epic and has included . . . sitting on his best friend’s parents front porch dodging bottle rockets as siblings waged an epic battle, sitting on the back of his Jeep watching a crappy firework show on the side of the road in a podunk town holding our screaming one year old, watching him incinerate the backyard of the first home we owned with his brothers and sisters and then filling his Mom’s backyard with so much smoke that the neighbors put an end to the fun, trying to fill in for him when he was deployed and doing the firework setting off duties myself bedecked in goggles with both our moms and our two toddlers watching, ice cream cakes pony rides and fireworks in the driveway pregnant in the southern heat of NC with our two little boys and next door neighbors, watching fireworks over the Pacific ocean from our backyard when we first got to Cali with Jeremiah in my tummy, spending a week in a beach cottage swimming surfing eating catching sea creatures having fires and smores and watching sunrises and sunsets and finishing off with an amazing firework display on the sand right in front of us, and this year of bike parades to the beach and back airplane flying grilling out with friends and biking back to the beach in the dark to watch the show over the water all by ourselves.

That’s a lot of red white and blue goodness. And none of it has yet topped the year he had just come home and we drove our two kiddos back to Indiana. We visited every spot that had our memories in it. And on the 4th of July we went to Ted’s mythic ranch and we rode horses and dirt bikes through fields and across his front yard. We ate good food with old friends round tables sprawled all over the grassy lawn. We drank cold beer and watched the firework show to end all firework shows go off right above our heads. And we ended the night, souls full, dancing with the teenagers to a country band on the front porch of his cabin and crashed for the night tucked up in his friend’s sister’s room in an attic. We drove back in the morning to pick up the remnants amidst tents, sleeping bags and still snoring merrymakers.

And we drove away full to the brim and overflowing, it was one of the more perfect moments we have known together. As we have moved around the country and had children our lives have necessarily taken on a different hue each year. Each year at the beginning of July we struggle through the decision wether to pine for that perfect moment in the past or make the most of the present moment, what it has to offer and what we can make of it. Each year we struggle a bit, but each year the present wins out and gives us it’s own beauty and at the end of the day we say that was a good 4th of July. Different, but really really good. I for one am glad that each one has been just as it is.

7-4-12 . 5D + 24-70mm .  LR + VSCO + Final Cut . learning video