4th of July Celebrations

As is common in the Provo area, the city celebrations went on all weekend long. We didn't participate in as many this year as we had planned (Freedom Festival on Center Street, watching the hot air balloons take off), but we still had a marvelous weekend.

It started off Saturday night with watching the Stadium of Fire fireworks show. We parked on top of a parking garage in our old neighborhood and watched them from the back of our Blazer. Lydia had a blast being able to crawl around in the back of the car. It was like a whole new world for her that she never knew existed.


This young man got more anxious for the fireworks to start then I think anyone else that was there on the garage. I found myself saying the same things that I could overhear people saying to their 5-year-olds. "It'll just be a few more minutes. You just need to be a little more patient." Etc.


Monday morning, the actual 4th, we walked down the street and watched the parade. I felt like there weren't quite as many floats this year, but the ones that they had were great.




Cute Daddy and Lydia. She was a little more into the parade this year than last year.

And our traditional red, white, and blue pancakes. Usually I do the colors separate, but this year I decided to attempt to swirl them. I think they turned out great, except next year I'll use less blue dough cuz that sort of overpowered the others, and I'll make the red dough darker cuz it turned out too pink :)


Lydia loves pancakes.

And so does Daddy.

This pic is to show off Lydia's shirt. I got it at Kohl's for cheap. It says "Red, White, and Cute" which I think is rather fitting ;)

That evening we went up to Katie and Mike's for grilled homemade pizzas, swimming, and fireworks. It was a blast. Here's Mommy and Lydia watching the fireworks. I would have cropped it down to make it a little more centered, but I love Katie's face in the background ;)

This was the finale of our homemade show. Not too spectacular, but it was hilarious watching Mike almost catch himself on fire when he and Robert were trying to get all 3 lit at the same time.

After our homemade show we watched all of the firework shows that were happening across the Salt Lake Valley. Mike and Katie's apartment is up higher on a hill so we just picked a patch of grass and had a view of all the professional shows but also some pretty spectacular at home shows people were doing. They legalized the purchase of aerial fireworks here this year, so some of the home made shows were pretty great.

So that was our 4th. It will be fun to start new traditions in Santa Cruz next year, or with Robert's school schedule it might work out that we'll celebrate the 4th with our family in Mesa. We'll see.

I am so thankful for this country and the freedoms that I am blessed with because I am a part of it. I am forever indebted to all those who have fought and continue to fight to give us all the freedoms we take for granted so often. God Bless the USA!!!