Fireflies and President Obama

First off, I promise I will get some pictures up soon! Second, this has been a great weekend! I have had the opportunity to see a couple of things that I have never seen before. The first being fireflies. We don't have them in Oregon, or Utah, but I have read about them in books, or seen them in movies, but never really got to see one in real life. However that all changed! I saw one! They actually glow and are really cool. I saw one on Saturday and it scared the heck out of me, then saw another Sunday evening. I really want to catch one and keep it in a jar.
Sunday evening I had the great opportunity to see a firefly because I was on the lawn of the capitol! They were doing a Memorial Day concert with many different people that performed or spoke. It was very cool. Everything was patriotic. Memorial day used to be a day off of school to go camping, or to the beach, but this year it has become more than that. They had veterans who were injured from the Iraq war speak. One was injured physically, the other had a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. He spoke on how he has changed in personality, and in abilities. Very moving stuff. We then walked down to the Washington Monument. It was cool to see at night. We decided we wanted to see more of the memorials tonight when it was dark.
Today we got up early to join the masses that were going to Arlington Cemetery. There is really no better place to go on Memorial Day than Arlington cemetery. Each headstone had a flag, and many were adorned with flowers. We waited in line to go to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. At the colliseum thing they were doing a wreath laying ceremony. It was EXTREMELY hot, at 10 am it was already in the 90s with probably 70% humidity! But we waited anyways in the hot sun to hear President Obama's address. He laid the wreath for the tomb and then came in to the coliseum. It was really cool to see and hear him in person! I almost didn't feel worthy to be there, because there were so many men and women in uniform, both serving now or as veterans. I haven't done anything like that to sacrifice for this country. I'm so glad that there are willing men and women that will for us. "Freedom is not free" is so true!
Our plan tonight is to go to the other memorials for the other wars. We are hoping it will be cooler in the evening, and the memorials are pretty special at night.
If my dad reads this at all, it is also his birthday today!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!