Fourth of July 2009: Morning

The morning of the fourth started early for our family.  We headed to the neighbor's for a flag raising ceremony.  Asher's scout troop was in charge of raising the flag.  I am his new Bear den leader and so it was fun to be there and watch our scouts honor the flag.  We then had a light breakfast at the park and then got to take part in a flag retirement ceremony.  This was really special.  We had a Master Sergeant run the ceremony.  He explained how we were to cut the blue field out of the flag first and then cut each stripe separately.  The scouts then handed the pieces out and we each were able to pay our respects to the flag of our great nation and put our piece in the burn barrel. It was quite emotional, and I was proud when they honored those who are serving our country and those who have served our country  and my Dad was there to be honored as a Korean War Veteran. This was a fantastic way to start Independence Day!