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Ice cream at the Purple Cow

Last year for the 4th, we were in D.C. and listened to a reading of the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives and watched the national fireworks.  We thought there was no way to top that.  Still, we said this year we would go to Philadelphia and visit Independence Hall.  But, we found a better way to top that.  Lisa, Joshua and Tanner came to visit.  It really was the best, most memorable 4th of July I think any of us will have.  The 4th happened to be on a Saturday (4 days before Lisa’s next chemo treatment) and we spent it enjoying the beauty of family and rural PA.  We had to take Tanner to our favorite ice cream place, The Purple Cow.  It’s only 2-3 minutes down the road and it sits surrounded by farms.  I managed a snapshot of Joshua extracting Tanner from the neighboring soybean field.  The kids ate lots of ice cream and then played on the swing set.  We had near perfect weather too – not too hot and not humid at all.  That’s a rare treat for PA in July.  Then Lisa gave the kids the best surprise – she let them color her hair with food coloring and then she let everyone take a stab at cutting her hair.  The end result wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  In fact, she said she got a few compliments when she got home.  The fireworks shows in our town happened the weekend before, so we spent lots of money on JB’s favorites, ground flowers, and sparklers for the kids.  You almost didn’t need fireworks because of all the fireflies working their magic in the corn fields across the street from our house (and all over our yard).  But we had to play with fire anyway, afterall I am married to JB!

The best part about the whole weekend was watching Lisa’s generosity with our kids.  She’s always had it, but this time I think she could have been very justified in saying she was too tired to play, or that she wanted one final stylish haircut before it starts to fall out.  Instead, she sat for quite a while on a bucket in our driveway while they colored and cut her hair, and she played all the games they wanted to play, and they felt unconditionally loved by her.  Thank you Lisa!!

We have decided next year is Philly, but I know it won’t top this year!

Check out all the photos from the Christensens’ visit – just click on the photos tab above.