4th of July

After we got back from the trip up to Bear Lake, we started making preparations for the 4th of July.  Harmon's Lagoon day was the next day, and so we tried to lay a little low on the 4th to save our energy for Lagoon.  We attended Farmington's parade, which the kids loved. 

All the cousins at the parade, except for Clara.  It's fun to have everyone together, as it doesn't seem to happen very often. 

Many of the floats threw out candy, so the kids all got a kick out of that.



  The rest of the day we had yummy food, and just played around with Family.  I think everyone was there except for Aaron, Amanda's husband.  The boys had fun shooting hoops with uncle Nathan's at the neighbors house, and the kids all enjoyed the pool at my parents house.

We watched several different fireworks shows from the comfort of my parents driveway, and then headed off to bed to get rest for the big day at Lagoon. 

The next day we headed off to Lagoon.  Every year, my dad's employer has a Lagoon day.  They offer discounted tickets to extended family, and my parents have been very generous in hosting all the grand kids (and us, their parents) every year. Beyond just discount tickets, the amazing part about Harmon's lagoon day is the amenities.  They have 2 huge pavilions set up just for them (you wear a wristband all day to get in) where they have all you can eat ice cream, cookies, cotton candy, watermelon, popcicles, chips, etc. and hot dogs and hamburgers for sale for just a dollar or two. We missed last year, as we lived in MD, and we didn't have another trip to Utah planned, especially since it was looking like we were going to move out west soon.  So we were excited to go again this year.  The kids all had a great time, and the adults enjoyed themselves quite a bit as well.  Some of us went to Lagoon-a-beach this year, and I think I'd skip that next time.  I guess I'm not a huge water park person, and it seems like a waste of time to be changing (and helping all the kids change) when you could just be spending time riding rides.  We did have a bit of scare with Harrison.  We had come up with a meeting place if anyone got lost, and what do you know, Harrison disappeared at one point.  He had us in a panic for a good 10 minutes or so.  I guess he got turned around, and couldn't find the front of the park where we were suppose to meet up.  But my dad found him somehow, and all was well again.

Here's some pictures to enjoy

Sam and Livie on the Carousel.

It's the 5th of July!

I don't know if it was a subconscious thing or what, but this morning I selected the "Eddie From Ohio" songs to play during my workout. They happen to have a song about the 5th of July. How appropriate.

We had a great 4th. And 3rd for that matter. And the 5th is turning out pretty good also.

On the 3rd we had some friends over to celebrate. Since we don't do outdoor BBQ's or party type things on Sunday, we decided to celebrate on Saturday. I found some cute print outs on the internet and had fun making some fans and water bottle labels to be festive.

I also found some great head-wear in the dollar spot section of target. The kids loved wearing the various hats and headbands. Everyone looked so patriotic! 

We had a water balloon fight

played at the park,

blew lots of bubbles,

and ate lots of yummy food!

Including this flag cake which a tried again this year.  I really should have outlined the flag before I decorated it - in the end the blue stars part was too small (there's only 40 stars) and there were 15 stripes.  Ah, well.

On the 4th, we got out our Sunday patriotic clothes (minus the hats...), and headed to church. 

After Church and naps, Sam lead a tickle fight.

And then Sam and I decided that we wanted to see the fireworks downtown - but we didn't want to deal with any of the traffic. We saw them together when we were dating (I guess that was 9 years ago now), but we knew the craziness that exists downtown, and the high traffic every where - the metro, on foot, and especially on the roads.  So we thought we could pull off on on one of the scenic overlooks on the GW parkway, and watch from there, and then leave before the rest of the traffic caught up to us.  Sounds like a good idea, right?  So about 8 PM we headed down, kids in jammies.  But as we started down the parkway, we soon found out that the police had barricaded off all the lookouts.  I'm not sure why that seemed like a good idea to them.  So we thought, maybe we could watch from Roosevelt Island.  Well, a lot of other people had that very same idea.  The lots were full, and again, police had barricaded off the parking lot not letting anyone else in.  While we discussed various plans (pull off on the grass like we saw many other cars doing, back into one of the scenic lookouts, since only the entrances were blocked off, park at the airport parking lot....) we got lost a few times.  We drove around a lot, and pretty much decided we were going to give up and head back to home, where there were fireworks right near our house.  So, we headed from the airport back down the GW parkway.  We noticed traffic in the right lane was slowing down quite a bit, and I joked to Sam, "Hey, maybe we can just get stuck in traffic on the parkway, and be able to watch them."  So instead of passing people on the left, we got back in the slow right lane.  Where apparently a lot of other people were hoping to see some fireworks too.  Our lane came to a complete stop right at an opening in the trees, and the fireworks began!  We could see the Washington Monument, and Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, as well as the top of the Capital.  With an amazing fireworks show right in the middle, reflected in the Potomac as well.  I forgot my camera, but it looked something like this: 

The kids, who moments earlier were nagging why we had been in the car so long, were suddenly appeased.  We stayed and watched for 20 minutes or so, and then decided to head home before it got too late or the traffic got too bad.  On our way home we drove right under the Montgomery County fireworks - it was kind of crazy, people had pulled off on the side of the freeway all over.  But it was fun to see.  And we had no traffic.  The  kids were home and in bed just after 10 pm, which, according to Harrison, was way too late. 

And now it's the 5th.  Sam has the day off work, so we're getting some work done around here.  Namely, finally painting the bed we built - hopefully I'll have pictures to post really soon!