4th of July

Okay, it's August 11th. I've been a little busy, but better late than never, right?

First, a cute picture of C in his "my first 4th" outfit:

This crazy celebratathon actually started the night of the 3rd (or 4th-of-july-eve as M called it) when we went to dinner at my parents house and did some fireworks. Burns on our arms and legs left us questioning the safety of the newly-legal arial fireworks. A fun time was had overall though.




The next day, we decided to attend the parade for the city we actually live in. I know, novel idea, right? I guess I feel like sort of a parade connoisseur, choosing a different parade nearly every year and always finding something lacking. I don't enjoy the long, overly commercialized and soggy Kaysville Parade. The Centerville is nice and early and pretty decent, but I've never lived there so no connection and plus it's a bit of a drive. Hyrum is the traditional parade for us overall, but we have begun to make that long drive less often as we have more kids & ties to our community. (so sad to miss those old cars and Miller's trucks) That left the hometown parade, Layton. It was earlier this year, so we decided to set out some blankets the day before and give it a try. I have to say I was pretty impressed. It didn't reek of opportunistic business owners, very few were trying to shove coupons in your face, and I didn't see a single souped-up truck advertising it's chrome specials. We actually had a few chances to honor our local military (the air force base is here) and there were schools, churches, and city organizations represented. It wasn't overly long and didn't have too much candy. I liked it.





After the parade, we enjoyed lunch out and then had some time to rest and get ready for that night. Along with my family, Aunt Noelle and Uncle Patrick were coming for our dinner, and it was her birthday, so we had to make a cake! We had a great dinner with kabobs, salads, and 4th of July jello. The cake was fun to make and turned out cute.




We did some fireworks outside (this time remaining unscathed) and said goodbye to Patrick & Noelle and headed to some big fireworks in a parking lot nearby. The kids must have had it because they just grumbled the whole time and drove us and their grandparents crazy. We were happy to get them to bed and try to recover from the whole holiday! We are happy to live in this country where we get to choose how to live our lives- happy 4th! (just a few weeks late)