4th of July Celebration

July 3rd, 4th, 5th, 2008

There is nothing like being in Utah to celebrate the 4th of July. The patriotism is EVERYWHERE. We love the parade, family cook outs, fireworks, cooler weather, all of it!

We spent Thursday and Friday night at the Rowe's along with the Corbins (5 adults and 12 kiddos, what a houseful!!!). Their neighborhood has the biggest annual 4th of July bash ever, it is usually 3 days of food, fun, and festivities. Thursday was the big block party where they close down the street and the entire neighborhood comes out for a bbq, dance party, games, water fight, wagon rides, socializing, fireworks, and the infamous rocket chic!!! We did a big seafood boil, with 2 tables full of shrimp, crab legs, sausage, corn on the cob, potatoes and onion man it was good!!! We were in heaven, good food, good friends, GOOD TIMES!

YUM!!!

Our sweet girls

This picture doesn't begin to do this bash justice!!

Rylee and Keaton ridin the night away...

We went to the freedom festival for a bit and checked out the festivities at Colonial Days, the kids did the slip and slide and water ballon toss, Keaton and Rylee rode the tractor wagon about 2 dozen times. The girls were having a blast dancing in the street!! When it was dark people were setting off fireworks up and down the block and rocket chic made her appearance (it is unfortunate I don't have a picture of her, words cannot do it justice!!!)

One of the neighbors shows movies on the side of their house all night long and anyone who wants can bring a blanket and lay out under the stars and watch the movie!!

Friday morning it was up early to get ready for the parade. Stacey's sister lives right on the parade route so they manage to get a killer spot along with the other neighbors every year and we are fortunate enough to be invited to sit with them . I love the parade and have since I was little. It makes my heart happy to be able to sit and watch it with my kids now.

We love you Glenn!!! (pretty sure that security guy wanted to hurt us!)

My personal 2 favs this year were of course the LDS missionaries walking down the street singing Armies of Helaman (where else but in Utah do you get to see that??) and GLENN BECK!!! Stacey, Rachell and I decided to chase down the car he was riding in and get a pic with him. We looked like total fools running 2 or 3 blocks to catch up and when we got there, one of his security detail was not happy with us but Glenn (and his wife) were good sports and we got a good laugh out of it!!!
By the time the parade was over we were all pretty wiped out. We laid everyone down to rest and watch a movie. That evening the kids and I went to my brother Mikes for another BBQ. It was a good turn out 3 of us from Arizona 2 siblings from there, our parents, my Uncle Tadd and his family and a few friends!!! We really had so much fun spending time with cousins and siblings that we don't get to see near often enough! We did MORE fireworks and then headed back to the Rowe's for the night. I honestly don't think the kids could get much more tired, having fun is exhausting!!!

Saturday we planned to celebrate Mal's birthday (since it falls on Sunday). We went and saw Kung fu Panda (LOVED it), did some birthday shopping, and went to lunch. Another full day.

That evening we headed back up the canyon to spend one last night with great grandma and grandpa. It was nice to get up there and relax. Sunday was low key, we went to Sacrament meeting in Midway. Grandpa Wright planned a really nice birthday dinner for Malerie and all my siblings, and their kids (Mike, Missi, Carli and co.) came up for dinner, cake and games. It was the perfect ending to a fun week.

Sunday night we loaded up one more time and headed to Deer Valley to hang with the Pottles till it was time to head home! We love Deer Valley and the Pottles are amazing hosts, it was so nice of them to include us. We went to Park City one more time, played cards, the kids relaxed in the jacuzzi and played till their little hearts content! It was really hard to go home, we hadn't gotten our fill of the mountains and perfect weather, but we missed Eric terribly and as they say all good things must come to an end!!!

Tuesday- Driving home

I was thankful to caravan with Charlotte and Catherine. Again we were blessed to have a safe drive and we were so excited to see dad and sleep in our own beds!