And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free!

We had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend.  Things started off Thursday when we drove down to Bountiful.  The kids were excited (like always) to go to Utah!  We got to Grandma Sue & Grandpa Dan's and were very happy to see our family again.  We had a pizza party with the cousins, aunts & uncles and Grandma and Grandpa, and we got to get to know Julie's beau Todd and his kids better.  He's a nice guy, and it was fun being around him.  I think he's good for Julie.  Not that my opinion on that matters though.  After loading up on Papa Murphy's goodness, we headed out for the Eaglewood fireworks.  Each year, our plans of how to get in and get out quickly and closely get more complex and the guys are always scheming, it's pretty funny.  We got to the golf course and enjoyed playing with balls and footballs and bubbles, playing card games, wrestling, playing with glow sticks and chasing each other around.  And munching on peanut butter and marshmallow popcorn, oh yum!  Grandma Di, Grandpa Scott, Mark, Mayela and Amber met us there.  So half of the fun is the before the show activities.  Then it was time for the fireworks to begin.  Cov made it right up until 10 o'clock, but then crashed and slept right through them all.  The show didn't start until about 10:20 because it was a little windy (we joked we brought the wind down from WY with us) and there was some rain earlier in the day, but it ended up being sunny and nice with a breeze.  The firework show was really good, the kids favorite firework was a heart-shaped blast and "the bees".  Love enjoying all of the laughs and giggles with our family.

Fourth of July morning, we dragged ourselves and our kids out of bed to attend the Centerville parade. It's always a fun one, I like that's it's big enough, but not too huge.  Lucy liked the clowns and Grease Monkey guy the best, Cal liked the Ninja Turtle and Spiderman the best, and Emma liked the cheerleaders and tumblers.  And of course, they all liked the candy!

We then went over to the Stoddards for an Independence Day celebration.  We had a hot dog bar.  There were all types of toppings and garnishes, I'm not big on hot dogs but it was tasty!  We also had corn, pasta salad, jello salad (Emma and Amber decorated it and thought it would be cute to do it this way, aw!), chips and a bunch of fresh fruit.  For dessert, we had homemade ice-cream and patriotic cake balls.  Then we did all types of activities and crafts.  We made magnets for the fridge, the kids made their own balloon rockets, made fireworks with glue, salt and food coloring on black construction paper.  We played some games.  We did a sunflower seed spitting contest, a throw the wet sponge at the target on Grandpa game (our kids came up with that one) and we had some water balloons, but ended up short on time and never got to that.  The thing the kids liked though, was their snail collection and the home they made for them on the side of the house.  The one Cal named Turbo.  They had the greatest time with them!  I think sometimes we get so caught up in making fun things for kids to do when it's the simple, easy things that are the most fun for them. They also played cheerleading and took turns doing cheerleader tricks and showing off their skills.

We had a BBQ featuring shiskabobs and hot chicken, all kinds of salad and fixings with the Ryerses.  Randy is a good griller, I've gotta say.  We got to see Shirley for the first time in a while.  She was so sick for a long time, since Easter.  They finally took her into the doctors and found a mass in her, which they did a lot of tests to determine what it was.  She had a blood transfusion and some other things done.  We recently found out she has lymphoma.  It's so sad, we love Aunt Shirley.  She is in our thoughts and prayers!  The kids helped make a card and we took some flowers to her while we were down.  She is so weak, you can tell and has lost so much weight.  We're pulling for you and love you, Shirley!!  We had fun playing and eating, then it was off to another firework show (gotta pack 'em in!).  This is the best one, the fireworks at Davis High.  Since seeing the Davis High fireworks, which always features the song "God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood, the kids have been singing that song a lot!  They all were so happy when it came on set to the fireworks and Emma exclaimed "I love this song!"  I'm with her, I've always "And I proudly stand up {symbol crash} next to you and defend her still today.  'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land.  God bless the U.S.A!"

The day after, I met up with some of my flute friends from college - Amber, Jasmine & Melissa.  It was so fun to catch up.  We had a waffle bar at the park.  I know I've said it before, but I'm blessed to have had friends who have a great influence on me and helped me to make good decisions.  It was nice! The afternoon consisted of running around and picking things up at the store of things we can't get or are not as good of a deal at home.  We got an oil change and tires rotated and all of that fun stuff.  Then we went to my parents house, where we were able to see Grammie, Uncle Dave and Morgan.  It was great to see them, it was Thanksgiving we saw them last!  Morgan and the kids had so much fun, she's such a sweetheart!  She didn't want to leave but said she wanted to come home with us, he he!  I think our kids felt the same way.  We've missed them!  We played a new Mr. Potato head game my mom got and it was fun.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures at either of those events.  Then we went back to Dave's parents and had dinner and hung out with the fam.  Jerry, Stacy & crew came and we spent the time together and got haircuts done.  Cov got his first haircut!  His shaggy hair over his ears was driving me crazy and it was ready to fix that.  He looks quite handsome now, though I wasn't able to snap a good picture, he's such a restless guy!