A “Monster-ously” Happy 4th of July!
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 1:00PM 
I love the Fourth of July! I love that it is a holiday that brings our country together to celebrate the wonderful “Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness” that we all enjoy as citizens of the United States of America. Freedom Rocks! The Fourth of July is always a vacation where we are with friends or family….or both. This year we were home in Indianapolis with my mother, sister, brother-in-law, and their four kids. The lake that we live on has a wonderful fireworks display every year that we watch from our boat. They also started an annual boat parade and contest a few years ago. We decided that to make this holiday everything it could possibly be, we would enter the boat parade for the first time. The theme that the committee set for the parade this year was “M * A * S * H”. We knew that everyone’s boats would be relatively similar, with a MASH tent and the cast of characters from the TV show. Being the serious competitors that we are, we decided that we needed to do something unique to make our boat stand out from all of the rest for the judges. We were “In it to win it”! We had 8 kids on board (and a dog!) so knew that they would be the key. After all, who can resist kids and dogs, right? Since none of the kids in our group had ever seen the TV show, we decided to liven up the theme a little bit and do a “Monster M * A * S * H” song and dance routine. The kids all wore camouflage, but had masks and furry gloves on. My husband, Kevin, was “Hawkeye” and my poor brother-in-law, Tom, drew the short straw and had to be “Klinger” (He was the one who always dressed up like a woman!). I was “Hot Lips”, my sister “Hot, Hot Lips”, and my mom “Really Hot Lips”. Dakota, our dog, was in her Uncle Sam costume. We decorated the boat with a camouflage tent, Red Cross, flags, bunting, MASH sign with arrows pointing to many different cities around the world, and even a latrine! My husband created the latrine on the back of the pontoon that had a sign posted on it saying, “Officer’s Latrine: All others use the lake!”. There was even a roll of toilet paper attached! We choreographed a dance for all of us to do to the “Monster Mash” song. All of the other boats on the lake gave us honks of approval and thumbs up. The judges even seemed to dance along to our dance. In the end, despite some tough competition from other very well decorated boats, we pulled out a win in our Rookie season! The kids’ screams of excitement made you wonder if we won the lottery or just the 3rd Annual Boat Parade Contest. In the end, it was a day of celebration, from morning until the fireworks finale in the middle of the lake as we “oohed and awwwed” from our award-winning boat. My mom, sister, and I all had tears in our eyes as we reflected on the week of fun that will be forever in our hearts. Family is special and time spent together is priceless. Sometimes when we truly LIVE in the moments that we are in, we experience a joy that washes over us and lets us know that this is what is really important in life.
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-Gianmarco Lorenzi it shoes experience a joy that washes over us and lets us know that this is what is really important in life.