Our holiday weekend began with a trip down to Gunnison for my Uncle Mike's 70th Mustache Bash!
Dad likes to drive people (especially Dana) crazy with something green stuck in his teeth.
Mike and Mike
These cute second cousins hit it off well, after the initial shyness.
Randy, April, Linda, and Mike were all together! It was a great mini reunion.
Jake got Aunt Linda to draw some pictures for him. She still calls kids goo goo birds, just like when I was growing up.
Baby Kate was a hit and I hardly held her the whole day. She chattered and giggled for everybody.
Uncle Mike has a special way of getting people to trust him and open up. The proof is that Ella sat on his lap for a long time and looked him in the eye while they talked about her school and friends. Precious moments.
Later that night we drove back to Provo and joined the Nelson's in their front yard to watch the Stadium of Fire. They had a lemonade and candy stand all day and let our kids eat some of their goodies.
The boys
The girls
We were able to hear some of the Tim McGraw concert faintly, and I heard he was amazing! Wish I could have been there in person. The fireworks were awesome, although farther away than we are used to. It was nice though to have Rachel's house for bathrooms and naps.... although the traffic home was SO bad. We didn't get home until midnight and everyone was exhausted.
The kids wore festive duds for church the next day and of course I had to snap a picture.
We had the first of our garden food for Sunday dinner (the tomato and zucchini). I love all produce meals in the summer!
After dinner the kids watched a Joseph Smith movie with Daddy and all the boys fell asleep. We put them to bed at 7 and the girls at 8, which is an astonishing record for us on a summer night!
On the morning of the 4th we tried to wake up early to make it to the Freedom Festival balloon launch, but my phone ringer was off so we didn't wake up to the alarm. Luckily Kate woke us up at 6 and we loaded everyone in the car to see what we could see. We ended up parking behind my old apartment building, Heather Heights! I lived in the upper right hand room. It was so weird to be there 14 years later with 5 kids!!!
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the balloons hadn't launched yet because the weather was too cold and windy up in the sky. So we didn't miss anything, but it was sad that they were a bust.
Our niece Korinne was saving our place on the parade route, so off we went to find her. I love this picture because Jake was jiving to the music as we walked.
Speaking of Jake, he wanted to bring the 4th of July crown that he made in nursery the day before. Cracked us up and made the day of his nursery leaders.
I still have this song stuck in my head: "Our house, in the middle of our street."
BYU didn't participate in the parade (sad day!) but the Cosmobile came through and did cool tricks.
We always love sitting with the Pickett's!
Later that afternoon everyone came over for a family BBQ. I love a good shin-dig!
Korinne and her roommate Megan provided lots of entertainment for my kids and I kind of want to hire them.
We all got hot playing badminton and took a break to look at clouds.
Two of my pretty girls!
More of Megan playing with the kids... they had races as bears, crabs, and frogs.
Then they played duck duck goose and lots of other games. Man, I think I need more energy to play with my kids.
We talked and relaxed until dusk, and then people trickled home while our little family went to the front yard to watch neighborhood fireworks. We were surrounded on all sides by huge aerials and it was quite a show! There is little as satisfying to me as snuggling up on blankets with my little ones and enjoying being together. I love the 4th of July for so many reasons... spending time with family, eating amazing food, singing patriotic songs, and celebrating America's birthday! We had a sweet lesson in Primary about how this country was discovered, founded, fought for, and prepared to be the place where religious freedom allowed the gospel to be restored. It is a sacred place, and I feel so blessed and privileged to live in this beautiful land and have so many blessings including life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness!
