An evening with the Blossom Festival Orchestra and their Salute To America::
The kids have been really helpful around the house:
Lincoln continues to do well at tennis. We're also learning a few things to work on at home to make our court time better, like footwork and catch and some of the simple things.
Auntie Haley came for a visit over the July 4th weekend, and while Lincoln was at tennis, she and Jenn took the little ones to the nature center.
And a neat thing Jenn and I have noticed on our runs on Akron Peninsula Road are the overgrown fields where a farmer has dropped off goats to clear the grass. Most recently, they've been in a field across from where Quick Road ends on AP. So after dinner this evening I took the kids (har!) for a short car ride to see more than 50 mamas and babies.

Fishing!

We spent the Independence Day weekend at the cabin at Leesville Lake. It was a warm weekend, but very relaxing. Lincoln rode in the boat for the first time, and went fishing for the first time!Today we went down to visit the Craft family. It's been a while since we've seen Elise (we used to catch up with her on our trips to Arizona, but she's now in Minnesota), and it's been even longer since we've seen her brother, Eric. He's been serving in Afghanistanand Okinawa, and he's about to head over to Kuwait. So it was very nice to catch up and to see Baby Ryann, who's 8 months old and not a bit short on personality!

Independence Day Weekend, 2009

We've had an enjoyable Independence Day weekend at the Gates Home. On Friday evening we met up with three couple-friends from church and went to Blossom for their Salute to America. Lots of Sousa, 1812 and other good American music have become somewhat of a tradition for us, and this year we shared it outside of the family. We each brought a different dish to complete a whole meal, and you could say we ate well.

We didn't visit any parades on Saturday. It was more of a day of catching up on some of the household chores, but we did go for a short hike later in the day.

Two very interesting, very new events happened yesterday:

• In the early afternoon, when Jenn was cleaning downstairs and I was occupying Lincoln upstairs, we'd been playing for quite a while, it was approaching lunch-time, and Lincoln pointed to his crib and started fussing. So I put him in the crib and he slept for more than an hour and a half. Stop for a minute, those of you who know Lincoln, and ponder the significance of that story... Lincoln told me when he was tired and ready for a nap. Holy cow!
• Secondly, in the evening, when Lincoln was getting ready for his bath, he looked up at Jenn and said, "Snack?" It's a good thing dinner came right after the bath.

We've had to rearrange bath time to allow his cast to dry. It dries very well, it just takes about an hour to do so. For those who are worried about Lincoln, as I'm writing this, he's pushing his Lion around just as he did in early May before he broke his leg.

Remembering Independence

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Henry Knox

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

George Washington

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

Nathanael Green

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

William Alexander self titled Lord Stirling

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

John Adams

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

Thomas Jefferson

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

At the Gates Home, we thank the LORD for the freedom that we have, and we pray that the LORD will not withhold the blessings to which we have grown accustom. We are grateful for the LORD's providing the right men at the right time to fight for our independence, both for the men whose names we remember to this day, and for those whose names have been forgotten. It is their courage, and the LORD's providence that has laid the foundation for our liberty today.

Please, don't miss the importance of this day.