Fourth of July

Last year, I decided the Fourth of July is my new favorite holiday. I love Christmas and all, and the meaning of it is obviously of paramount importance, but the busyness, materialism, and cold of December just doesn't quite compare to the sun-up, sun-down celebrations of Independence Day -- all done in the warmth of the sun. And now that Clay can be home celebrating with us instead of playing in his annual Fourth of July BYU soccer game, it's that much better. Although, we both miss his days with BYU soccer. 

Anyway, back to the Fourth. There is nothing like celebrating it in the heart of Provo. Watching the parade in the morning is a tradition I love, especially when good friends let us crash at their place to watch it. (Love you, Dayna and Steve!) But this year, we started the day's celebrations even earlier with Ellie's first real race -- a 1 mile run around Kiwanis park. She was so hyped up about running a race and talked about it all summer. She had hurt her knee the day before and was limping a little on the big day, but she was so determined to run as much as she could. When she had to stop and walk or have me hold her, she said, "It's OK if we don't win first." Atta girl. 

It was so cute to watch her cross the finish line. She said, "Mom! When I was running, my leg hurt a little but when I crossed the finish line, it stopped!" We walked to the runner's station and got her medal, which she was thrilled about, obvs. That night, when she was going to bed, she said, "I loved my race, mom." Looks like this might have to be added on to our annual festivities. 

We got smart this year and rode our bike to our friends' place on Center Street to watch the parade. It was nice to get a little workout in pre-holiday food gorging and to ride past all the people celebrating. Once Ellie spotted her best friend, Jayne, she was in heaven for the next couple of hours we spent watching the parade. Our friends were kind enough to let us borrow one of their cribs, and Camden eventually, miraculously, took a little snooze mid-bagpipes, canons and marching bands. My favorite float this year was Get Air Hangtime's, which had a trampoline float with people doing flips on it. Cool. 

After the parade, we went home to give the kids naps and do some prep for our family barbecue. When everyone arrived we ate good food (Bam Bam's brisket), the kids played on the Slip n Slide, and we visited with our next door neighbors and their family, who we are close friends with, and watched their annual firework show, which we call Cul de Sac of Fi-Er! (Sung to the tune of Stadium of Fire's theme song, of course.) These guys don't mess around. Their fireworks come from Wyoming and are super awesome. Once the sun started going down, we put a fussy Camden to sleep (he was asking to go "nigh-nigh") and walked over to the stadium to watch some of the Kelly Clarkson concert on the mega-tron. She has a pretty impressive voice, if you ask me. Then we got settled on our front lawn and watched the firework show. 

Ellie and her cousin, Kate, were fascinated, but would not unplug their ears. Haha. Little Camden snoozed through the whole thing, amazingly.

It was a fun, fun day and night. I love America. And I love Provo. There, I said it.