It's a great day to be an American!

Lucky for us, we were invited to the US Ambassador's home to celebrate 4th of July with other Americans living in Montevideo. We arrived at Ambassador Baxter's home around 10:30am and, after clearing security, made our way through the house to the backyard where the festivities were taking place. We mingled with employees of the Embassy (with amazing stories!) as well as Americans living in Montevideo. Specifically one guy we met stands out. Neither one of us can remember his name, but we won't forget his son's. His son's name is Saku. The family was stationed in Helsinki, Finland when Saku was born. When he told the story, he asked, "Do you know hockey?" The smile on Ryan's face got so big! The man continued to tell us about meeting all the professional hockey players (Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne among others) when issuing visas and whatnot, and that is how his son was named. Between mingling, we ate our share of doughnuts and bagels ... delicacies that cannot be found in Montevideo! It was great. After a while of meeting people and checking out the grounds, we joined everyone inside the house for the presenting of flags. The ceremony was done by Marines who are stationed at the Embassy. It was an awesome experience, followed by the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. Ambassador Baxter also shared some words from President Bush as well as his own personal story about the importance of 4th of July. They even handed out mini-American flags. Definitely a great day to be American! Around noon the crowd starting to wind down and we headed home. After the stories we heard and the opportunities to travel, maybe we'll be heading down the State Department career path ...

Happy 4th of July! We love and miss you all!

PS ... thank you for all the photo comments :) We just realized that they were there, oops!