Celebrating Independence Day

I love the 4th of July. It's my second favorite holiday (after Thanksgiving) so we had quite the busy weekend as I packed as much patriotic fun into 3 days as I could. (I even got the kids to watch the musical "1776" with me. Well, until I noticed that John Adams was swearing about every other sentence and realized I was decidedly uncomfortable about it all...)

Bryan came home from work on Friday and told me that his friend and business partner said as he was leaving, "I'm going to celebrate my independence by going home and doing whatever my wife tells me to." I laughed. Because I'm sure Bryan related to those sentiments.


Friday night we continued our tradition of attending the concert in the park and the big fireworks show in our old town. Brandon and Bryan ended up going to a gymnastics BBQ and team party so it was just the four of us girls. Lilian was so excited she could hardly contain it and asked all day, "Is it time for fireworks yet???"




In my opinion it's not the 4th of July without a parade. Bryan most likely wouldn't agree with me but he was a good sport on Saturday morning and still came anyhow. He even dressed in patriotic colors. And wow...what a great picture of that good looking man I married!!

Don't you think these are the perfect patriotic shoes?? (Side note: They also doubled as pretty awesome vampire shoes when I dressed up to see "Eclipse" a few nights ago. Multi-functional shoes....can't beat that!)

A few highlights of the parade? Watching my kids watching the parade is one of them. I took so many pictures like this one. Another... the jets from Hill Airforce Base flying overhead. I LOVE that! It gives me the chills. Another thing that gives me the chills... the start of the parade when the color guard brings the flag down the route and everyone stands and puts their hands over their hearts. I cried. I literally cried. Did I mention that I am a sentimental sap for any and all things patriotic?

This was another favorite for me...probably because I am still on a Ragnar high. Did you know that Ragnar started in Utah? The Wasatch Back was the very first one. There are many of them throughout the country now, but the headquarters are in Utah not far from my home. I saw this semi trailer up at the finish line in Park City. And I've been passing it daily for the past few weeks as I've been out and about. So I got all excited to see it lumbering down the street in the parade. I jumped out of my seat and whooped and hollered...and wished I was wearing my Ragnar t-shirt.


We spent the evening down the street with a bunch of neighbors for a BBQ and fireworks. After eating the guys pulled out the ping pong table and played a few rounds of "Slap Back." Wondering what that is? Yeah, I was too. Apparently it's a version of "Around the World" ping pong that is hilarious for spectators but pressure filled and potentially painful for the players. The players keep track of how many times they miss and when they get up to three... that's when the fun begins. Rules state that the player go nose to the garage door, pull up his shirt to reveal his bare back and then each of the other players gets a chance to whack the ping pong ball at him. Some of the men got some big ol' welts! Luckily for Bryan, he never got to three....

Hanging with the ladies...

Okay...so it's not on the same par as a big stadium show. But I think we had our own fairly impressive little "Cul-de-sac of Fire."


Seeing as the official 4th fell on a Sunday this year, we made sure to still dress in red, white or blue. I loved that we sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the opening song in church. And that we all stood as a congregation to sing it together. We have "In God We Trust" on our money. We say "One nation under God" in our Pledge of Allegiance. Honestly, being at church on the 4th, I thought, was pretty appropriate.