After 10 Years of Marriage… We’re Still Learning New Things

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast
Episode Title: After 10 Years of Marriage… We’re Still Learning New Things
Date: July 8, 2026
Hosts: Jinger Vuolo & Jeremy Vuolo

In this episode, Jinger and Jeremy take listeners through a lively and personal weekend recap—touching on July 4th family traditions, running a community 5K, wedding escapades, and the memories (and mishaps) that come with family, procrastination, and creating new rituals. Alongside anecdotes from their Los Angeles life, they reflect on childhood realities, the ongoing adventure of marriage, and growing up in the public eye.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Weekend Recap: Patriotic Traditions & The 5K

Time: 01:33–10:02

• Fourth of July Traditions & 5K Race

  • Jinger maintains a personal tradition of running a 5K every July 4th, often joined by Jeremy’s sister, Val.
  • She shares the challenge of running without training and the community encouragement from familiar faces along the race route:

    “As I’m running up the hill dying...I hear, 'Go, Ginger!'...you can't stop when they're cheering your name.” — Jinger, 04:45

  • Jeremy jokes about how having an audience improves one’s running posture and motivation.

• Competitive Guests

  • The wedding party included collegiate runners—and even an Olympic steeplechaser, Marissa, ran an astonishing sub-15-minute race with a 6-month-old baby.
  • Jeremy admires Jinger’s perseverance despite the competition:

    “What I'm impressed by with you is you commit to it...you finish it every year. You've never quit.” — Jeremy, 08:26

• Personal Growth & Motivation

  • Jinger reflects on the importance of challenging herself, especially because of missed childhood experiences:

    “Growing up, you didn't have an opportunity to do these things. And so now you're like, I'm gonna test myself. I'm gonna see what I can do.” — Jeremy, 08:44

  • The couple discuss how external encouragement can combat self-doubt—applying Hebrews 12’s “cloud of witnesses” metaphor to the race and life.

    “Running, you're so isolated...having those around you supporting you actually gets you thinking outside of yourself...it's sort of a metaphor for life.” — Jeremy, 12:58

2. Pilates, Procrastination, and the Wedding Weekend

Time: 14:10–19:54

• Pilates Adventure

  • Jinger attends her first reformer Pilates class with bridal party friends the day before the 5K—underestimating its difficulty:

    “Our legs were just shaking...after I was done, I thought, man, I did not know I had that many muscles in my body that could hurt.” — Jinger, 15:06

  • The soreness conveniently hit after the run, during the wedding (while she wore heels).

• Wedding Day Mishaps & Hemming a Dress

  • Jinger admits to procrastinating on altering her bridesmaid dress, only pulling it out the night before realizing it's too long.
  • She attempts (and succeeds at) hemming it herself with some help from Val:

    “Cutting fabric is like cutting hair...once you do it, you can't go back...But I was thankful it turned out decent.” — Jinger, 18:59

• Sweet Family Moments

  • Jeremy fondly recalls watching Jinger walk down the aisle again and their daughter Felicity participating as a flower girl:

    “I get to see you walk down twice. What a privileged, blessed man I am.” — Jeremy, 16:21

3. Family Traditions, Parades & Growing Up Duggar

Time: 20:23–31:34

• Fourth of July ‘America Bash’

  • The Vuolos host their annual pool party after the race and parade, sharing how house renovations felt “worth it” seeing friends and kids enjoy the backyard.

• Parade Culture & Childhood Snapshots

  • Jinger describes Arkansas parade traditions—sometimes involving riding a unicycle, renting safari animals (camels, donkeys) for Christmas parades, and having a “Dum Dums economy” with parade candy.

    “I did a unicycle race and I won third place...when there probably only was, like, five people.” — Jinger, 27:26

  • Jeremy shares his own memories of post-Halloween candy hunts as a child in Downingtown, PA.

• Political Parades

  • The hosts humorously analyze the parade politician archetype—how friendliness is often a campaign tactic:

    “If you know someone has an ulterior motive to be your friend, you're, like, skeptical...in real life, he wouldn't give me the time of day.” — Jeremy, 32:45

4. Fireworks Memories: Regional & Generational Differences

Time: 33:17–39:53

• Fireworks in California vs. “The Wild West”

  • They compare their current city’s cacophonous, illegal (but rampant) fireworks shows to Oklahoma’s Mustang, where July 4th is described as “driving through a war zone.”

    “You're driving downtown and 360 degree view of just fireworks...I mean every inch of that town is overtaken by fireworks.” — Jinger, 36:09

  • Reflections on growing up with bottle rockets, Roman candles, and the local “rules” (like never holding fireworks in hand).

• Fire Risks & Parenting

  • They observe recent LA wildfires sparked by fireworks and joke about the city’s white noise machines to help kids sleep through the noise:

    “The white noise machines were turned up louder than we would have liked them, because otherwise, the kids just won't sleep.” — Jinger, 35:39

5. Sentimentality and the Value of Rituals

Time: 40:43–42:19

• Making Memories & Commemorating Milestones
  • As the episode closes, Jinger laments the missed opportunity of her 5K medal not celebrating America’s 250th birthday:

    “They missed the opportunity of putting 250 years...maybe I'm just, like, weird and sentimental.” — Jinger, 41:08

  • The couple reiterate the importance of traditions and the sweetness (and imperfection) of family and community celebrations.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On pushing past comfort zones:

  “I enjoy challenging myself. Part of that is, like, my own insecurity of just not wanting to fail in front of others.” — Jinger, 09:00

• On motivation and public accountability:

  “The fear of man or the fear of people can actually propel you to finish.” — Jeremy, 09:19

• On parades and politics:

  “He's super friendly. He's shaking every person's hand, making sure to not miss anybody in the back...he's trying to make friends because he's trying to win.” — Jinger, 32:14

• On family togetherness:

  “Putting that expense into redoing everything, making sure it was safe for the kids, and then seeing everybody enjoy it...it was so worth it.” — Jinger, 22:23

• On the nostalgia of July 4th traditions:

  “This legit had me thinking that I want to do more sewing...I have, like, this crafty side of me.” — Jinger, 19:00

• On the surprise of learning something new, even after ten years together:

  "Ginge, this is crazy. It's like, I don’t even know you. Safaris and unicycle races." — Jeremy, 27:43

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Noteworthy Timestamps

| Segment | Topic | Timestamp | |---------|-------|-----------| | Jinger’s annual 5K and parade traditions | 02:12–04:52 | | Competition and family motivations | 07:24–09:19 | | Hebrews 12 “cloud of witnesses” metaphor | 09:29–10:02 | | Jinger’s last-minute dress hemming story | 17:34–19:00 | | Fourth of July pool party & hosting | 21:49–22:23 | | Safari animals in Arkansas parades | 25:01–26:12 | | Jinger’s unicycle memory | 27:05–27:26 | | Parade politicians | 32:06–33:02 | | LA vs. Oklahoma fireworks | 34:21–36:03 | | Sentimental reflections on 250th anniversary medal | 41:08–42:11 |

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Final Thoughts

This episode balances humor, nostalgia, and the everyday unpredictability of family life. Whether discussing procrastination-induced sewing adventures, the visceral motivation of being cheered on by friends and strangers, or the quirks of community traditions, Jinger and Jeremy illuminate what it means to keep growing and learning in marriage and parenthood—reminding listeners that even after a decade, you can still discover new stories (and talents) from the person right beside you.

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Transcript

[Ginger]

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[Jeremy]

Not many guys get to see their wife walk down the aisle twice. You gave me a little wink, too, didn't you?

[Ginger]

I did give you a little wink. It's actually hard to believe that you can have an entire episode be talking about a crazy weekend. But let's jump in because it was a crazy weekend. Oh, really? Yes. I had got my bridesmaids dress. I ordered it way in advance. Right. I ordered five dresses. Only one of them fit me. So I pull out this dress. I'm like, oh, no, it's like, way too long. It's going to trip me walking down the aisle. So I call, like, multiple places, try to get an appointment. Then I realized I'm like, okay, I actually forgot that I have a sewing machine and all I need is thread for this thing. And then I think I can try it. Like, I can attempt to hem my own dress.

[Jeremy]

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Ginger and Jeremy podcast. And we have had an eventful weekend celebrating America's 250th birthday. We also had a wedding. We had some other stuff going on. And we're going to do a little bit of a weekend recap.

[Ginger]

It's actually hard to believe that you can have an entire episode be talking about a crazy weekend, but let's jump in because it was a crazy weekend.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, we had a few things to get to. And first of all, let's start here. You've been keeping up this tradition, Ginge, of running a 5k every July 4th. I'm really proud of you for that.

[Ginger]

Thank you. Yeah. I don't know why I started. Well, I kind of do. Like, I think I needed to challenge myself to do something that was get a B beyond my comfort zone because I typically am not a runner. And I, one year, just out of nowhere, decided to sign up for a 5K. And I think that first year, I trained for maybe a week, and then I ran that thing, and a couple things have. It was boiling hot. Like, so, so hot.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, it usually is on the 4th

[Ginger]

because it's the 4th of July, and it was so warm.

[Jeremy]

Your desire to get out of your comfort zone is admirable, but then you're also a bit of a procrastinator. So then really bad procrastinator, you've advanced out of the comfort zone into, okay, I'm gonna do this. But then it's like, three days before, and you're like, every year I haven't run. I haven't trained for this.

[Ginger]

Yep, every single year. So I actually run it with your sister Val, of course. And so Val is a runner, and I just try to, like, keep pace with her, and I just about kill myself every single time because I'm literally like, ugh, I can't breathe. I have a cramp, and I don't know how to get rid of it. So I'm running with my arms above my head, just trying to, like. Oh, my gosh. So embarrassing.

[Jeremy]

Do you really run with your arms above your head?

[Ginger]

I did not this year. Couple of years, I was like, I can't stop running. But, like, I had to walk.

[Jeremy]

Does that help you not cramp, having your arm above your head?

[Ginger]

Just, like, catch your breath?

[Jeremy]

Really? Oh, like, are you resting your hands on your head?

[Ginger]

I'm just, like, trying to catch my breath.

[Jeremy]

Show us what that looks like. You trying to catch your breath?

[Ginger]

No. Thank you. Yeah, it's rather embarrassing. So this is part of the thing in our small town. It's kind of crazy because we're in the outskirts of Los Angeles. We always say that because feels great, but really, our town is a little bit smaller. And when you go to the 4th of July, 5k, right after the 5k is a parade. So what you have is all these people who save spots. They get to their location 6am, some of them 7am and they're setting up their spot for the parade with a tent with chairs. And we know a lot of these people. So when the 5k happens before the parade, there are people on the sidelines watching us all throughout the 5K.

[Jeremy]

Oh, really?

[Ginger]

Yes. So I see people from church. Almost every single section, there's somebody from church.

[Jeremy]

Actually, I didn't know that.

[Ginger]

Yes. So, like, the Torres family from church, they sit in the same spot every time on the hill to the right. And I see them, and as I'm running up the hill dying. I'm like, I'm gonna walk. Because once I make it to the hill, you've already ran. You already went two miles down the hill. Now you're running on your third mile. You have to start going up the hill. And it's very exhausting, brutal. It's not a steep hill, guys, but it feels, like, very steep for somebody who didn't train. So I look over and I see the Torres family, and I'm like. And then I hear, go, Ginger. And I'm like, okay, once I make it to the top, it's fine. I can stop. And last year, then the Jansen family is standing there, and I'm like, oh, my goodness. Now all my friends are standing at the. Up the hill, at the top of the hill, right around the corner. And you can't stop, like, when they're cheering your name. So this time, I ran the entire

[Jeremy]

time because of that.

[Ginger]

I didn't stop.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, that's really funny. I. Whenever I would run, and it's sparse, but I would always. You know, you're, like, dying and trying to catch your breath, and then somebody drives by in a minivan, and all of a sudden you correct your posture, or you run past somebody who's walking, and all of a sudden you stop breathing, like. And you kind of just suck it in for a minute. And so you have. You're. You're cooked if you have that, like, all along the way. You can't. You gotta keep good posture the whole time.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Okay?

[Ginger]

And so to make things worse, there was the wedding for our dear friend who's more like family. Dear friends, I should say Zach and Anna. And they were getting married, and we were all, like, in the wedding party in a way. Right.

[Jeremy]

So serious. Flower girl.

[Ginger]

I was a bridesmaid, and you did the opening message part, and it was so sweet. But okay, the whole groomsman party was running in this 5K. And now my time was, like, 28 minutes and 30 seconds, which was pretty good for me. Not training, having three kids, being in my early 30s, you know, early 30s.

[Jeremy]

Very early.

[Ginger]

Okay, so I'm trying to make this sound great. Trying to have an excuse. Okay. So these guys in the bachelor party, they all take off.

[Jeremy]

Mind you, they are all collegiate runners, by the way.

[Ginger]

Yes, they're cross country or track and field, whatever. And I'm like, oh, my goodness. So they take off and circle back. So I see them coming back as I've barely made it like, a mile. Right. And they're already on their way back. It's insane. They're running up the hill.

[Jeremy]

Those guys ran. So a five minute is 3.1 miles. Those guys ran at a five minute pace. So they finished in 15 minutes and a couple of seconds.

[Ginger]

Insane.

[Jeremy]

So some of them came in, like, at 17 minutes and were really disappointed.

[Ginger]

Let's talk about Marissa. Oh, yeah, she ran 14 minute, 14 half minute something. And she has a baby.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. So she's an Olympic runner. She does the steeplechase.

[Ginger]

I'm like, oh, my gosh. I could never see. This is the thing. I have all these excuses for being postpartum. But then I look over, I'm like, oh, my. Yeah.

[Jeremy]

I don't know how old her baby was, like six months.

[Ginger]

She's tiny.

[Jeremy]

She's running under five minute miles.

[Ginger]

It's insane.

[Jeremy]

It's insane. But what I'm impressed by with you is you commit to it. And every year you did it. Last year, you were three months after having Finn and you were out there running it, and you finish it every year. You've never quit. That's you, though. You put your mind to something. And I feel like you have this sense of. Because growing up, you didn't have an opportunity to do these things. And so now you're like, I'm gonna test myself. I'm gonna see what I can do. I think a lot of your sisters have felt that of like, hey, I'm gonna experience what I couldn't experience. And you guys are good at stuff.

[Ginger]

Well, that's sweet. I do enjoy it. I enjoy challenging myself. And so whether that's working out or doing something active, I do want to push myself because part of that is, like, my own insecurity of just not wanting to fail in front of others, not to want to look for something.

[Jeremy]

So that's a moment, though, where the fear of man or the fear of people can actually propel you to finish.

[Ginger]

It actually worked. That's true. It's kind of crazy how that worked,

[Jeremy]

but, you know, that's biblical, and I just thought of it in Hebrews 12. He says, Run the race with endurance, looking to Jesus. And he says, because so great a cloud of witnesses surrounds you. So it is this image, the author to the Hebrews is using this image of, like, you're running a race and you're surrounded by people who've already finished the race. And that's actually a motivation to keep going. So that's like a good. So me getting nervous by the minivan driving by, or you seeing the Torres family, that's actually a good thing. It keeps you going.

[Ginger]

We want to take a break from this episode to tell you about Brooklyn betting.

[Jeremy]

Okay. One of the things, Ginge, that I think you need to attribute to you not being as sore as you could have been or should have been from that Pilates. Let's talk about that 5K.

[Ginger]

My Brooklyn bed.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, the mattress.

[Ginger]

Oh, my goodness.

[Jeremy]

The mattress we sleep on every night is so comfortable. Your sleep dictates everything about your day. How productive you are, how much you get done. And Brooklyn bedding has been kind of the one stop shop for us.

[Ginger]

It's amazing. For years we had these beds that would just sink in and literally both of us. Even when I was in my 20s, guys, I'm now in my 30s. 30s. I don't want to say it. I try not to say it. I'm in my 30s. But yes, as we're in my 30s now, I have actually had better sleep than I did in my 20s because of our bed. Our old beds with the sinking were just not quality, and we just didn't

[Jeremy]

know where to get them from. Remember the one time we went to some, like, warehouse and picked out these mattresses? It was the wildest thing. Now we know. Okay, like, all the beds in our house, kids beds, guest beds, our bed. Brooklyn bedding is the place to go. So here's what you want to do. Go to BrooklynBedding.com use our promo code JJ at checkout. You'll get 30% off site wide. It's a third of the price off. Go to BrooklynBetting.com promo code JJ for 30% off. Sitewide exclusive with our code BrooklynBetting.com promo codeJJ.

[Ginger]

We want to take a break from this episode. Tell you about Nutrafol.

[Jeremy]

Are you having hair thinning, shedding, or just hair issues? Nutrafol is your solution.

[Ginger]

Oh, yeah. I actually started taking their postpartum supplements because I was having a lot of that, and it was something that was just gonna be there for me when I need it the most because. Let's just talk about it. Hair is so important, and it's one of the things that helps to boost your confidence.

[Jeremy]

Oh, yeah. And there's a lot of skepticism about what's gonna help because everybody claims to have this magic cure, and, I mean, you kind of stop believing it at some point. But Nutrafol, actually, it works.

[Ginger]

Oh, yeah. All the baby hairs, they're actually coming through now again, postpartum after having baby. And so staying consistent with these have been. It's been incredible for me.

[Jeremy]

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[Ginger]

That's good. Good deal.

[Jeremy]

Thanks. Yeah.

[Ginger]

Now back to the episode.

[Jeremy]

It does actually. Not to get like trying to get too profound here, but it does. It is a great metaphor for life. You know, the people that you have around you cheering you on. In those moments where you feel because running, you're so isolated to yourself, all you feel is your pain. You feel your body, you start to feel self doubt. You start to think thoughts like, maybe I should give up. And having those around you supporting you actually gets you thinking outside of yourself. And you hear them and you see them and they're excited for you and it motivates you to keep going. And that's sort of a metaphor for life.

[Ginger]

That's great. That's so true.

[Jeremy]

That's why lonely people need to be in community.

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

Because you'll just spiral deeper and deeper into your depression or into your loneliness and you have no perspective but your own. You need to get outside of it. You need to get the perspective God gives you in his word, but also what people are going to say about you who know you and love you.

[Ginger]

That's so good, babe.

[Jeremy]

I didn't intend to go all there,

[Ginger]

but I kind of like.

[Jeremy]

It didn't become like a biblical counseling session.

[Ginger]

That's amazing.

[Jeremy]

I was proud of you. You ran the race and so you kicked that off. But actually the day before you had made some bad decisions with the bridal party, so.

[Ginger]

So like not training for a 5k, I have to say, I did train.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Ginger]

Oh, my word. Killed myself. So I went and did Pilates for the first time and it was like reformer Pilates, I think is what it's called because you're on a machine and it looks like a table that you'd like go to the Chiropractor, get your back adjusted. You lay it on the table. That's literally what it looks like. So you walk in, you're thinking, how hard can this actually be? Because I'm just gonna go in, and I'm gonna be able to do a couple stretches and call it good. It's not yoga. No. It's insane. So you have to connect springs on this machine, and then there's a lot of resistance and a lot of holding poses.

[Jeremy]

All I think of as you flow

[Ginger]

up and down, as you say that,

[Jeremy]

is the torture scene in Princess Bride. That's all I can think of. That's literally in my head for what your Pilates was.

[Ginger]

It's insane. And literally our legs were shaking. One of the other bridesmaids, she looks over at me. She's like, ugh, this is the hardest workout I've ever done. And I've done so many workouts. And she said, I've done so many workouts, has Chloe. And everybody's like, our legs are just shaking. And it was rough. It was so cool, though. After I was done, I thought, man, I did not know I had that many muscles in my body. That could hurt.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Ginger]

So it was great. But then I felt really great walking out of there. But then I was thinking, tomorrow's the 5K. So lucky for me that we did that workout about 12:30. And then the next day, the run was in the morning super early, so my body did not have enough time to get sore. The day that I was sore was the following day on the wedding when I was wearing heels.

[Jeremy]

But all you had to do was walk down the aisle.

[Ginger]

That's it. Yeah.

[Jeremy]

That was really special. Not many guys get to see their wife walk down the aisle twice. You gave me a little wink too, didn't you?

[Ginger]

I did give you a little wink.

[Jeremy]

I was at the end waiting for the bride and groom, and there my bride comes walking down. That was sweet. I thought about that in the moment.

[Ginger]

That was a sweet moment.

[Jeremy]

What a privileged, blessed man I am. I get to see you walk down twice.

[Ginger]

That was so sweet. I love that you were down there. And then Felicity was a flower girl, so she walked down. You got to see her walk down too. And. Oh, you know what? Talking about procrastination.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Ginger]

So I had got my bridesmaids dress. I ordered it way in advance. Right. Like, as soon as we got the link, I ordered multiple dresses to try, and I ordered five dresses, because I was thinking, you never know how the dress is going to fit. The sizing is always off. And so I ordered five. Only one of them fit me decently. And the only thing that it needed was the length taken care of. So I. I just put it away in a safe place in my closet out of sight, so the kids wouldn't get into it and be like, oh, what is this? You know, and mess it up. So I put it out of sight. But out of sight also means out of mind. And I forgot about it until there was, like, zero time to get it tailored. And so it was two days or so before the wedding. Maybe, like, on the day that the rehearsal was. So the rehearsal was the day before

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

the fourth of July.

[Ginger]

It's the third. That's when the rehearsal is. So I pull out this dress. I'm like, oh, no. It's, like, way too long. It's gonna trip me walking down the aisle. So I call, like, multiple places, try to get an appointment. And then I realize I'm like, okay. I actually forgot that I have a sewing machine, and all I need is thread for this thing. And then I think I can try it. Like, I can attempt to hem my own dress. So we had the 4th of July happen, and I still had not hemmed the dress. And that night, I was like, okay, like, I've gotta do this. I have to, like, take it upon myself just to try. But I was so nervous. Cause at that point, I procrastinated so much that if this doesn't turn out, you're in trouble. I have to just live with it. No one's gonna fix it. No one has time to come help me. So I ended up stitching this dress. Your sister Val helped me pin it on the bottom, because I was like, I can't stand up and pin it. So I said, just fold it up right where you think it'll hit, like, the. Below the heel of my shoe. And so we got it all sorted. Then I pinned the entire thing, sewed it, and then I had to chop off fabric, roll it up, and sew it again. And it scared me. The cutting fabric is like cutting hair, because once you do it, you can't go back. And then I was like, well, even if you roll it, and then you can seam rip it and take the seam out if it messes up. But I didn't do that. I cut it.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Ginger]

And it was scary. But anyhow, I was thankful it turned out decent. And it actually. You know what it did for me? This legit had me thinking that I want to do more sewing. Really? I want to do more sewing. I have, like, this. This, like, crafty side of me. I don't have any patience for little things. I have zero patience. But I want to sew something.

[Jeremy]

Are you getting emotional about sewing?

[Ginger]

No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. It's just looking at you.

[Jeremy]

We are in Ginger's cry era.

[Ginger]

Not crying.

[Jeremy]

You are tears. Water is coming out of your eyes. Eyes have definition. You went for it here.

[Ginger]

No, I'm just. I'm not crying.

[Jeremy]

It's tough talking about sewing.

[Ginger]

Babe. I cannot drink. I don't hate that.

[Jeremy]

That's so funny. Okay, so all of this, by the way, came on July 4th weekend. And we have been trying to start a tradition on July 4th. This is our second annual America celebration bash at our house. And we have the race in the morning, and then we have the parade, which kids love, and. And then we all come back to the house and have a pool party. And it's a fun tradition. I like it.

[Ginger]

We want to take a break from this episode to tell you about Poncho.

[Jeremy]

I can't speak about Poncho highly enough. It's quality products that I actually wear. My wardrobe is becoming filled with poncho products. These shirts are rugged. They're high quality. They're not expensive. And we'll tell you about our code in a second to get them cheaper. But Poncho outdoors, amazing.

[Ginger]

Oh, yeah. And they wash super well, too, because a lot of things, you end up with issues when you actually throw it in the wash. So this not only works for outdoors, but when you wash this thing, it's going to feel super high quality when it comes out.

[Jeremy]

That's the test.

[Ginger]

Feels better every time that's washed.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, that's the test of good clothes, is I'll get a nice piece of clothing and I get it surprisingly cheap. And I'm like, oh, sweet. You wash it and you go, okay, I'm throwing this way Poncho. I wash them over and over and over. And actually, it's kind of like a nice leather bible or leather pair of shoes, leather belt. The more you wear it in, the better it is. Poncho is like that. I have buddies. I've only found out about them last year through the podcast, but I have buddies who've had them poncho shirts for years, and they kind of swear by it. So go to ponchooutdoors.com ginger ponchooutdoors.com Ginger Enter your email. Get $10 off and free shipping on your first order. That's poncho outdoors.com. ginger head there, drop in your email, get 10 bucks off and free shipping. And once you try one, you'll get why I've got my closet full of poncho shirts.

[Ginger]

Now back to the episode. It's super fun.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

We.

[Ginger]

Yeah, we did that for a couple years, and now that we have the pool, we had to redo our pool coping and all around the pool, raise it, put in a drainage system, all that. All that fun stuff. You know, it wasn't a very fun expense because it felt a little bit unnecessary in the moment. But this year, hosting the Fourth of July at our house was fun because all the pool area is done, the backyard is done. There are always projects around that we see. But that's why, you know, you do all that is to host. And so I think that's part of. When I was looking out, everybody having fun in the backyard, I was like, oh, it's so worth it. Like, putting that expense into, like, redoing everything, making sure it was safe for the kids, and then seeing everybody enjoy it, like having our friends over. We had a cookout, so hot dogs, hamburgers, sides, all the things, and we were just able to relax. It wasn't stressful. Leading up to. It was a little stressful because we came back from the 5k, then went to the parade, and then Finn fell asleep on the short drive home. And then he was. You were nap trapped by him because he fell asleep on you and you

[Jeremy]

were watching, which I didn't mind.

[Ginger]

You're watching a game.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, I fell asleep watching one of the World cup games. And I was kind of. It was kind of perfect. It was take a little snooze myself, fins on my chest, asleep.

[Ginger]

But I was a little stressed. I was like, oh, no, I have to get all this done. So I was running around trying to get some things done, and you kept saying, should I get up? And I said, don't move, don't move. I was like, sacrificing having your help just to give Finn a solid nap. And it was honestly the best decision. And then as soon as he got up, you helped. We set up the grill, got everything ready.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, it's fun. It's a good.

[Ginger]

And it was amazing hosting people like

[Jeremy]

I like, and we've talked about this before, but establishing family traditions, and I think that's a big one. One of them that I want to do for Christmas, which I've mentioned to you before, is have on Adam Eve, or on Adam Eve on Christmas, Adam having a huge party And a dinner party. Because everyone on Christmas Eve is usually with their families, and then they do Christmas morning together. But two days before Christmas is the time to get all of the friends

[Ginger]

together who are local, who didn't travel.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, local friends. And so I want to do a big dinner and whatever on Christmas, Adam, as they say. But little traditions like that. Trying to be thoughtful. Did you have traditions for your family loves July 4th? Yes, because you guys were super political. Not that you have to be political to love July 4th, but because it

[Ginger]

was a huge deal in the parades.

[Jeremy]

Okay. Oh, yeah. You were huge.

[Ginger]

Half the time I was in the parade waving.

[Jeremy]

Were you in the parades while you were filming the TV show?

[Ginger]

No.

[Jeremy]

So this started, like, early.

[Ginger]

We did a couple. We did a couple shows where we were in a parade, really, but it was just like a Christmas parade. We had camels go through. We, like, brought animals from our local safari, borrowed their animals and brought them out. So we had a camel, we had a donkey.

[Jeremy]

We had like your family did.

[Ginger]

Yeah, it was fun.

[Jeremy]

A local safari in Arkansas?

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

What?

[Ginger]

There's a safari?

[Jeremy]

What do you mean there's a safari?

[Ginger]

It's a drive through. Drive through safari? Yeah. It's 45 minutes from my family.

[Jeremy]

How have we never done this?

[Ginger]

I don't know. We should do it if you've been

[Jeremy]

Arkansas at least four times.

[Ginger]

I just remember that from the show. We fed the animals bagels, visited the safari.

[Jeremy]

You can serve bagels to a rhinoceros.

[Ginger]

You can drive through safari, too. It's really cool. I remember the name.

[Jeremy]

That's wild.

[Ginger]

That actually is pretty wild. I never think about it.

[Jeremy]

I never thought about that. This is in Arkansas. This isn't.

[Ginger]

I was like, did you not watch the show?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

No,

[Jeremy]

not that one.

[Ginger]

I'm kidding. Okay.

[Jeremy]

Oh, so you rented jungle beasts from a safari for a Christmas parade?

[Ginger]

Yeah. And then that was one of the episodes. The other episode.

[Jeremy]

That's wild.

[Ginger]

I didn't know you could do that. I. You couldn't, but they did.

[Jeremy]

Okay.

[Ginger]

The other one. The other one was where we went to a safari and we fed the animals and we helped out for a day.

[Jeremy]

You've had a lot of activity at the safari, and I'm surprised this has never come up in our relationship.

[Ginger]

Well, I had to be married for 10 years for this to come out.

[Jeremy]

You're, like, well acquainted with an Arkansas safari, and I had no clue.

[Ginger]

Now I don't know if it's still in business. I have literally not checked since we went there.

[Jeremy]

You know, there's a safari in San Diego where you can sleep out in the tents with. With the beasts.

[Ginger]

Which ones? Lions. Tigers.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, the whole thing. Lions and tigers. Like, I know there's giraffes. It's a whole thing. Okay, we gotta try that. I forget what it's called, but I've heard about it.

[Ginger]

Sounds like a dream.

[Jeremy]

So. So, okay, so your parades, July 4th celebrations were.

[Ginger]

It would always be kicked off with a rodeo, a parade. And the parades were fun because we would either be in the parade on a float or we'd be walking. I just had a thought, and I don't know if it actually happened or not.

[Jeremy]

What thought?

[Ginger]

I feel like I rode a unicycle halfway through a parade or all this.

[Jeremy]

Are you serious?

[Ginger]

I think I did.

[Jeremy]

Are you having a recollection of your childhood right now?

[Ginger]

I don't know if I did or not, but I have this memory that I might have.

[Jeremy]

Well, where would the thought have come from? Where would the memory. Where would you have made it up from?

[Ginger]

It just sounds like I did your history. I did a unicycle race. Did you know that?

[Jeremy]

What?

[Ginger]

I did a unicycle race and I won third place when there probably only was, like, five people.

[Jeremy]

But I do think there would be a lot of people in a unicycle horse. But when did you do that?

[Ginger]

I did that in my teen years. I have the certificate somewhere.

[Jeremy]

Ginge, this is crazy. It's like, I don't even know you. Safaris and unicycle races.

[Ginger]

So, okay, so back to that. I was saying that because of the parade. Because of the parade.

[Jeremy]

What kind of parade is this?

[Ginger]

The parades are really big, and they usually involved a ton of candy. So Dum dums. This is not sponsored by Dum dums. But it should be, because Dum Dums were a huge part.

[Jeremy]

Are they a company still?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yes.

[Jeremy]

Back in, like, 40s.

[Ginger]

Yes. You could buy the big red bag of dum dums with, like, a thousand dum dums in it. And we would take those through the parade and we would throw them out to the kids. We were the kids and we would throw them out. Yeah, we could have them. And you know what my favorite flavor was?

[Jeremy]

What?

[Ginger]

Butterscotch.

[Jeremy]

Oh, yeah. To this day, that doesn't surprise me.

[Ginger]

It still is butterscotch. And you hate butterscotch. And then the blue one was also good.

[Jeremy]

How do you say caramel?

[Ginger]

Caramel. You say caramel.

[Jeremy]

I don't say caramel.

[Ginger]

You don't say caramel. Anyhow, we would Throw out those. And then we'd pass out flyers for whatever politician or whatever company or friend or whatever we need to pass it out for.

[Jeremy]

So is there always an agenda in a parade?

[Ginger]

Yes.

[Jeremy]

Like, we're gonna. We're gonna be.

[Ginger]

I don't ever remember going through. We would campaign or we would pass out flyers, or we would help a business or. But then we also would attend the parades a lot. And so that was fun. I loved it. We would go to every parade. Like, Christmas parade, the Fourth of July parades. We were there, like, there at our parade, at another parade down the street.

[Jeremy]

You know what parade we used to go to? So I grew up in the borough of Downingtown. Like, right downtown Downingtown.

[Ginger]

Hershey's. Tell me it's Hershey's.

[Jeremy]

No, Hershey's a couple hours away.

[Ginger]

I know, but would they come to yours?

[Jeremy]

No, that was a couple. That was, like, more Western Pennsylvania. But the Halloween parade, we would always go out. Sometimes we'd go to the parade, but we lived up the street. Like, we lived two streets over from the street. They'd go down, and the next morning, we would always run out and grab the candy from the street.

[Ginger]

Wow.

[Jeremy]

Isn't that crazy?

[Ginger]

That's insane.

[Jeremy]

Candy that's been on the street all night. And we were surprised.

[Ginger]

Well, I'm surprised that it was still there. Cause ours would always have. Immediately at the end of the parade, they had the street sweeper come out.

[Jeremy]

Oh, yeah.

[Ginger]

No, I wasn't. That was the finale of the parade was the street sweeper.

[Jeremy]

What? Seriously?

[Ginger]

Yes.

[Jeremy]

That's awesome.

[Ginger]

You know why, though? Because they had to have it come out now. They had. This is my thought. Because they had the candy, they had the garbage, and then they had. The rodeo is where it would start or end at the rodeo. So all the horses would trail through. It was gross. And they always had the people out with the shovels, following on trailers. And they would literally hop out with their buckets and scoop and take it away. But I think that's why. And it was, like, all over the streets.

[Jeremy]

Arkansas parades are different.

[Ginger]

Oh, my goodness. We had, like, hundreds. It was actually cool, though. They would wear all their rodeo gear. It was like the sparkly suits from head to toe. And there was, like, hundreds of them. And we got so sick of the horses. Because we'd be like, just move. Just get the horses out of here and bring us the candy.

[Jeremy]

You know what's funny? I was just thinking, like, are parades a distinctly American thing? Like, do you go to turkey and do they have parades, I bet.

[Ginger]

Yeah, they have to. I don't think it's only American.

[Jeremy]

So you're saying parades are just a human thing? Yeah, I mean, they're all through the Bible. Like victory parades and stuff?

[Ginger]

I think so. I think they're cross cultural.

[Jeremy]

Like, what a funny thing to just think about. Humans around the world, cross culturally, do parades where we just show off the cool stuff we have, and we're like, look, we have horses.

[Ginger]

I drive a golf cart.

[Jeremy]

I drive a golf cart. Look, Christmas, I'm campaigning to be the comptroller in your neighborhood.

[Ginger]

You know what's really funny, though? Okay, so we were at the parade on the 4th, and I look across and I see a guy. He was walking, and he had a huge smile on his face, and he was shaking everybody's hand.

[Jeremy]

Is this at our parade this weekend?

[Ginger]

Mm. And I looked at him and I said, politician. I did not even see his float. And I said, he's a politician.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

And.

[Ginger]

And I told your dad that because your dad was in town. Said, he's a politician. That guy, he's super friendly. He's shaking every person's hand, making sure to not miss anybody in the back. And then, sure enough, a little while later, there's his float, and he goes over and he hops. It's like the car, you know, with his sign on the side. I said, he's trying to make friends because he's trying to win.

[Jeremy]

That's the funniest thing about politicians, is if you know someone has an ulterior motive to be your friend. You're, like, skeptical.

[Ginger]

Exactly.

[Jeremy]

And then politicians were like, we've fallen over them. We go, oh, yes, I'll vote for you. It's like the only reason he's shaking your hand. I thought that same thing during the parade. I saw somebody who I knew for sure. It's like, that dude's a politician. Maybe it was the same guy. And I was like, in real life, he wouldn't give me the time of day. He just wants something from me.

[Ginger]

Yep. It's kind of funny. It is.

[Jeremy]

We shouldn't get too deep on, you know, the politics.

[Ginger]

We can get into that.

[Jeremy]

But it's ginge. So parade culture seems pretty intense for you. So that was a huge tradition on July 4th?

[Ginger]

It was, yeah.

[Jeremy]

And then what? Would you guys go home and.

[Ginger]

And then we would, like, have a party. So we would go to our friend's house and they had a massive party. We'd be shooting off fireworks. Now this is something else. We need to talk about fireworks, because fireworks here in California are supposed to be illegal. And I say supposed to be illegal because they are. And people do them anyways. And they're going off everywhere. They are causing fires. It's not always very.

[Jeremy]

Stories from Saturday night.

[Ginger]

Oh, my goodness. Yes, you do. I need to hear about this.

[Jeremy]

We go to the top of the hill at the university and look down on these neighborhoods, and these are just kind of normal neighborhoods where we're at. And the fireworks are in your face, and you can look down and on the street, you see people with their fireworks waving, like, sparklers and stuff around. But they've got, like. They've got big boy fireworks. And you're seeing them put them on the street, run away. It goes up. Felicity's having the time of her life. Her favorite ones are the ones that sound like eagles and they spin.

[Ginger]

Wow. How was that?

[Jeremy]

She loves it.

[Ginger]

The little spinner things like, where are the eagle wires? That's so funny.

[Jeremy]

And then she said that. I was like, I've never thought about that. But it does sound. It's the most American firework. It sounds like an eagle.

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

But at one point. So we've got. And mind you, this is like SoCal, and the wildfires are a thing, and they devastate areas. And they're lighting these things off, and I'm talking, like, every street. So you're watching massive fireworks go off, and you're looking over, massive fireworks go off. And you could see in the distance, like, an actual fireworks show at, like, the theme park or something. And it's. It's different. It's huge. But these are mega fireworks going off. And then all of a sudden, a fire breaks out. And Felicity goes, look, dad, there's a fire. And I look over, and it's on the hill. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. This is gonna take the whole neighborhood down. And so I'm like, thinking, do I call, you know, and you see some people down there, and maybe four or five guys run over and start stomping the fire out. I'm like, well, I'm glad they didn't run the opposite direction. Just like, this is so wild. This is the wild West.

[Ginger]

That's crazy, because those hills are dry.

[Jeremy]

They're very dry.

[Ginger]

It's really insane. It's so dangerous.

[Jeremy]

Crazy dangerous. But it's like. I mean, they do it all night. Yeah, it's gone all night.

[Ginger]

Oh, yeah, it's wild. The white noise machines were turned up louder than we would have liked them, because otherwise, the kids Just won't sleep. It's so loud. That's insane.

[Jeremy]

But you know, the craziest on July 4th was when we were with our friends in Mustang, Oklahoma.

[Ginger]

Oh, my.

[Jeremy]

That was like driving through a war zone.

[Ginger]

If you ever have the opportunity to go to Mustang, Oklahoma on the 4th of July, do it. It's an experience you will never forget.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. You're driving downtown and 360 degree view of just fireworks.

[Ginger]

I mean, every inch of that town is overtaken by fireworks. And isn't it because a lot of the other areas are like outlawed. You can't do it. So they all come to that town. Oh, really? Something like that Isn't that interesting?

[Jeremy]

I don't remember. I just remember it was insane. And Felicity, we had to put these massive headphones on her and put her down for sleep. That was one night where we gave our kid, who was probably three headphones and a big old iPad and said, go to sleep, sweetheart.

[Ginger]

She was having a hard time.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, she was not gonna sleep otherwise.

[Ginger]

It was rough. That's crazy.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, that's wild.

[Ginger]

Yeah. The fourth of July. What a thing. I mean, it's a massive deal. We did fireworks growing up all the time.

[Jeremy]

James almost blew his face off.

[Ginger]

Oh, my goodness. That was his own creation. That was not on the fourth. But James is. Yeah, he's had a lot of creations. But anyhow, we would go get fireworks. So I don't know if it was late May, early June, that we would have tents come up around the town, and every time we saw them, we'd be like, ah, it's almost time for fireworks. We're gonna go buy fireworks. And some of the tents would sell them, like, really high prices. They were super expensive. And then we would go to a couple of the cheaper ones and we were all lauded, like, got an allowance of money for fireworks. And it would be, you know, enough for us to get a good bundle of fireworks. But there were some rules around it, I guess. We would get bottle rockets often because those. You could get like 100 bottle rockets for whatever it was, three or five dollars.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

And.

[Ginger]

And then we would have a rule where you are not allowed to hold a firework in your hand. What is it called? The Roman candle. So Roman candle. I would get the Roman candle. And we were never. My mom and dad would be like, you cannot hold them in your hand. But every once in a while they let us hold a Roman candle. But the problem is because sometimes they could shoot out the back instead of the front. So there were rules about that, about Bottle rockets. I remember we had to put them. We had like all these metal like poles and we would have them around and we would hook the bottle rocket on where this, the lighting part is sticking out the edge of it. And we'd light it and we'd had to run and we would do like hundreds of those over the time of the 4th because they were so cheap. So I'd spend my money on those little snakes that grow. Man, is just bringing back memories. And then the little kids would get like the little throwdown.

[Jeremy]

Oh yeah.

[Ginger]

Our mess everywhere.

[Jeremy]

Just the smell of gun.

[Ginger]

Yeah. Just like. Yeah, it's so great. But like fireworks were so much fun growing up and now it's just not a part of our tradition to do fireworks on the fort.

[Jeremy]

Well, it's to.

[Ginger]

Because it's illegal.

[Jeremy]

Well yeah, but I mean maybe us to do them, but we just. We definitely go and see them.

[Ginger]

To go see them. Yeah. But like even this year I didn't go see them because the kids were too tired. So Finn and Evie just were too tired.

[Jeremy]

After the cool part though, about an area like this and probably like Mustang, Oklahoma. But you can almost go to any high rise and it's part of the culture where neighborhoods are just going off. So you go down to Roscoe Boulevard, you go on top of the church and I'm told you look around, it's like 360 view and you just see everything popping off at once. There's some really cool. If you guys are trying to like see what LA fireworks look like on the 4th, there are some really cool time lapse videos on YouTube. Just type in like LA fireworks time lapse. And they'll put them together or just speed it up or whatever. And it's. You see all them going off in the, in the neighborhoods and it's actually insane.

[Ginger]

That's wild.

[Jeremy]

I don't know how many people blow their hands off and fingers and stuff. But it's gotta be a lot because it's just going off constantly. And that's the other thing. I was looking at this like little neighborhood streets and I'm thinking, okay, surely they're gonna be out. No, we. Or Felicity and I. Cause you put the other kiddos to bed. We were like, all right, let's go. And they were still going off. We just got bored being there for an hour and a half going, all right. I mean it's just going to keep going all night.

[Ginger]

Insane.

[Jeremy]

And then the next morning they're just sending them off. The ones that they had left over.

[Ginger]

And this is like days later. And I think I heard some tonight, too. It's crazy.

[Jeremy]

You hear them days leading up as they practice and days afterwards. It was fun. It was a great weekend. Our sweet friend Anna and Zach got married and we were part of that wedding that was rare for all three of us to be in a wedding. And so that was really sweet.

[Ginger]

That's so special.

[Jeremy]

And celebrating the 4th. Busy weekend, but a sweet weekend. One for the memory books for sure. Well, hope you guys had a wonderful time celebrating the 250th anniversary of America and had a great fourth.

[Ginger]

Okay, hold on. Pause right there. You cannot end this episode because I had a little sadness. I got my trophy. This is very important. After I ran the 5k, I got my medal. And it was the same design as the last so many years. And it said Independence Day classic. And it just had the year. And they missed the opportunity of putting 250 years. Happy birthday, America. Maybe I'm just, like, weird and sentimental.

[Jeremy]

So, okay, I did have to talk you down because I had to remind you, like, you realize this is just like. Susan is volunteering.

[Ginger]

It's a mom and pop organization.

[Jeremy]

She's just volunteering for the town.

[Ginger]

I will volunteer.

[Jeremy]

I'll design the middle.

[Ginger]

I will volunteer. I will design it. But the shirts were the same as last year, just a different color. And they didn't give me a shirt because they were like, okay, I'm getting into it. They didn't give me a shirt because

[Jeremy]

you had a size small.

[Ginger]

I ordered size extra small, and they only had mediums and up. And so they said, sorry, you don't get a shirt.

[Jeremy]

And you said, can I have a medium?

[Ginger]

But I purchased it and they said, well, can I have a medium? They said, I'm sorry, you can't, honey.

[Jeremy]

That's crazy.

[Ginger]

And then they gave me the medal.

[Jeremy]

Dug in my heels.

[Ginger]

That was like the same as last year. They did not put 250 years on there. I felt like that was a big deal.

[Jeremy]

It's kind of a big deal.

[Ginger]

It's a long time, needless to say.

[Jeremy]

Well, you guys. Yeah. I hope you had a great weekend and we will see you next week.