Fourth of July

 On the Fourth, we got all patriotic by traveling to the suburbs and visiting with family.  My parents do a flag raising and lowering on the Fourth that may not exactly follow military protocol, but is still pretty great.  Someone gave Zeke a hammer and told him to pound in the stakes.  He was very happy with the responsibility.        

The trumpets came out for the Call to Colors, played by Grandpa, Kiwi, and Mike.  In the past there would have been a good deal of bragging, trash-talking, and "warming up" on very high notes prior to the bugle call.  This year the players griped about valve oil and sticky valves, and opted to conserve their lips.  The Fine Musician music was quickly found after that and they played some kickin' Christmas music and a little Alexander's Ragtime Band (which would have been really good with a trombone).

At the flag lowering, I played Taps on a trumpet (with all 3 valves down).

Zeke stayed up for his very first fireworks show.  He sat with Grandpa most of the time, but came to see Mike and I after fifteen minutes or so and asked if we could stop it now - it was too loud.  I think he really enjoyed the fireworks, but he was tired and he was trying to tell us that he needed to go to bed.  We made him stay until the end of the show anyway.
Big thanks to Grandma who stayed home with sleeping Ben.