Independence Day

This is a long post with a lot of pictures, I will not be offended at all if you skim.

This is one of my favorite holidays. I love the fact that it isn't a holiday that I have to put a lot of work into for my kids to absolutely love it. No shopping, no big planning, no worries. And I also love the fact that we do the same thing every year. That may sound boring but we LOVE it.

I need to backtrack a little bit though first. My Sister in Law Jeanine's father passed away last week. His funeral was on thursday in a little town called Bear River. It was a long drive and I almost didn't go, but decided that I would. I was very glad that I did. I got the chance to talk with my parents and brother and his wife as we made the long drive. I'm so grateful for the knowledge of God's plan that we have. There was such a sweet spirit at this funeral, and it was so fun to hear their family tell of memories of their dad. At the cemetery he was honored with full military honors. There was a three gun salute and Taps was played. It was so moving. Wow. I have seen it on movies and TV shows, but never participated in real life. It was a very powerful experience.

So because I was involved in the funeral all day we got a little bit later start than we had planned on. We always go to Trevor's parents house in Centerville on the evening of the 3rd. This year we decided to stop on our way and put out our chairs for the parade the next morning. I'm not sure why we hadn't thought of that before, but it was so nice to have a spot ready the next morning and not have to rush through breakfast so we could hurry and find a spot before the parade started. These people are serious about their parades. The parade route was full of chairs but we found a really good spot. We got to Trevor's parents house and had a great BBQ dinner. We headed back down to the park and let the kids play in some inflatable bounce houses and on the park playgrounds. It was crowded, but this is the one time of the year that I don't mind crowds. Weird. Once it got dark we snuggled down on our blanket to watch the fireworks. Cole and Cagney weren't sure about the noise at first but were soon "Oohing" and "Ahhing" with the rest of us. We got back to Trevor's parents house late and got the kids to bed. Again...one of the one times of the year where I don't get stressed out because the kids are in bed so late.

Since Cole and Cagney were born Trevor and I have never been able to get ourselves down to the breakfast in time. His parents have always taken the older kids for us. But this year we made it! I'm not a big breakfast eater (we often have breakfast for dinner) but I love fourth of July breakfasts. The parade always starts with a fly over by some big jet planes from Hill Air Force Base. The weather was perfect. It was overcast so that definitely cut down on the heat. The parade was great. The kids love to see how much candy they can catch. I'm usually not to keen on my food flying through the air but, again, I don't mind this one day out of the year. Am I the only one that gets a little lump in my throat when I see a marching band?



After the parade we found a nice spot under a couple of trees and spent the afternoon watching the different performing groups, the kids enjoyed the bounce houses again. Miquelle, Jared and Gabe each won a new little "carnival" frog. We had one lone surviving frog from last year. He didn't seem to mind having three more frogs to share his bowl. Jared didn't like the idea of putting all of the frogs in one bowl because we wouldn't know which one died when one of them died. Here's hoping we have better luck than last year. Miquelle has had a certain pride all year that her frog lived the longest.

Every year I say I want to try a chocolate dipped frozen banana and I finally did it this year. I only got one bite before Cagney wanted a taste. She ate off all of the chocolate and gave the banana back to me. Thanks.


We left the park all hot and sweaty and ready for a little break. When we got back to Trevor's parents house they filled up a little outdoor pool. They kids all played outside while the grown ups collapsed inside to rest for a few minutes. We played a really fun game called "Wacky 6". It was nice to spend the afternoon relaxing and talking and the cousins all had fun together. We were so tired by the time we got home. But it was a good tired. A we had a lot of fun playing tired. The best kind of tired. We can't wait to do it all again next year. We get a little bit better at it every year. Every year we say, "next year we have to remember...".