Better than the 4th of July

A little bit of background:

1. It had been a while since my family had walked to church. Yes, I know we live close. But when it's cold/snowy (or we just run out of time) it's so easy to jump in the car. We're American, what can I say?

2. It had been a really long time (I'm talking over a decade) since Dad had accompanied our family to our ward-walking, driving, or otherwise.

So, yesterday my family decided to walk to church (I was going to the home ward yesterday instead of the singles ward-that's the only reason I was present for this experience).

We walked down the driveway and turned onto the sidewalk, scriptures in hand and Dad in tow. When we got as far as-oh, I don't know, our mailbox, maybe-we heard a deep, steady beat. It kinda sounded like my sister running across the street in high heels. But no, my sister was not booking it across the street.

We turned around to see what the noise was and discovered our elderly neighbor who lives across the street standing out on his porch, applauding our family. Dear Bishop Clegg, who we all adore, was cheering for the fact that dad was going to church at a normal hour with his family.

It was great.