3rd, 4th, and 5th of July 2010

We had a nice long weekend to celebrate the 4th of July this year. On Saturday the 3rd, we drove up to Hooper to spend the day with my family. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab our camera, so we have no documentation of our own. But my mom took some pictures, so maybe she'll send me some :) We all went to the Hooper Park, where we got to look at boothes and let the kids play on the playground. Then we went home and had Hobo dinners in the fire out back. They were really good. My mom made a cool flag cupcake cake for Kerry for his birthday (which is on the 5th) and we all got to sing to him. We left right after dinner so that we could get the boys in bed, and try to avoid all the Stadium of Fire traffic that would soon be clogging the streets of Provo. We succeeded. After the boys were asleep, Aaron and I took a big blanket out on the front lawn of the apartment complex and watch Stadium of Fire fireworks from afar. It was a nice peaceful end to the evening.

Sunday, on the actual 4th, we didn't do much. We got up and went to church, but after sacrament meeting my back was hurting so bad that I couldn't even sit, so I came home. I spent most of the day laying down and trying to get my back to stop hurting.

Monday was the best day of the weekend. We had planned to get up early and go to the hot air balloons, but Ivan was up all night, so we bagged that idea and slept in. We did make it to the Provo parade though, and it was fun. 

Our neighbor had taken a blanket over for us Sunday afternoon, but there are lots of crazies out there who were camped out to save their seats for the parade. We didn't end up with a bad seat though, we were just behind a lot of people. But we were in the shade this year, and that made all the difference to the fat, swelling, pregnant lady. :) But since we were behind people it was hard for the kids to see. Aaron had the brilliant idea to have them stand up in the back of our radio flyer wagon (have I have mentioned that our radio flyer wagon was the best $5 we ever spent? Because it was.) and then they could see pretty well.

Carson (neighbor boy), Lincoln, and Ivan watching the parade from the back of the Radio Flyer

After the parade we did a few chores around the house that needed to be done. My mom came down to spend the day with us, since Kerry and Tanner are gone to scout camp all this week. She and I used her Cricut machine to make nut cups for Kelsey's (Kyle's fiance) bridal shower this week. Aaron worked on making the bunk beds, and the boys took naps. It was a great afternoon. We BBQed hamburgers for dinner, and then invited all the neighbors out for S'mores and fireworks. Since our budget for fireworks this year was a whopping $10 it was nice to have all the neighbors out for company, and to combine all our efforts to make the fireworks last longer. Ryan and Melissa came too, and joined in the pyrotechnics.

Ivan was a little apprehensive about the fireworks. He preferred to stay behind my camping chair and watch from a distance. And if they made any  noise at all, he preferred to be in my lap. :) His favorite were the pops.

Lincoln was all over it though, and whenever he got to do a sparkler he would say, "Daddy gived me fire!" His favorite were the parachuter guys. He really liked finding the parachute on the ground afterwards and throwing it back up in the air.

After all the fireworks were through, we put the kids to bed. Ryan and Melissa stayed a played a game of Curses with us. I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time. Happy 3rd, 4th, and 5th of July everyone! God bless America.