4th of July

Independence Day is always a fun time to celebrate America with family and friends. This year, my parents brought back the 3rd of July festivities in their backyard before the Logan fireworks. Aunts and uncles and neighbors and grandparents and siblings and nieces and nephews and friends all gathered for yummy pulled pork sandwiches and all the potluck salads and treats. We actually ended up inside the garage (thankful they have one now!) for dinner and most of the party because we got a huge downpour that sent us all under cover. We left before the fireworks so we could get home and get some sleep before our 4th of July festivities in Huntsville the next day.

I made sheet pan apple pie.

With frosting!

We got to meet and hold baby Natalia!

She's the sweetest little bundle ever!

Grandma had lots of pop its for all the kids.

Thank goodness for a big garage!

These two hooligans are a hoot. They were making a bed
on the ottoman and "going to sleep".

The sky put on a nice show as we left town!

I've heard for years that Huntsville has a great small-town (but huge crowd) parade and celebration, but we've never been to it in 8 summer of living here. So I decided (and thankfully my family agreed) that this was the year to check it out. Sam loved running a mile before the Hyrum parade last year, so he was on board for this plan closer to home when I told him there was a fun run in Huntsville, too. I got him and Cal both signed up for the mile run, which started at 8 am, so we had to be up and at 'em early that morning (hence the early exit the night before from Cache Valley). The race was cute, but a little confusingly organized. For one thing, there were three different lengths of race: around the park, one mile, and 5K, and we were told that the signs marking the course corresponded to the sticker on the bibs, which corresponded to the race you signed up for, so that's what I kept telling the kids: "look for the green signs!" But right as they were lining up to race (which was hard to hear in the first place), we heard that the mile was supposed to follow pink signs, or was it blue?. I don't know now, but it wasn't the same color as their sticker and we were all pretty confused for a bit. Even with the wrong colored signs, I think the mile course was only 3/4 mile in length because the kids crushed it! I don't know their exact times, because some volunteers were sitting right in front of the clock that I was counting on to get their time, but it was definitely faster than last year's time for Sam for both of them. Luckily everyone still had fun.

Ready to run!

Here comes Sam!

I spy Cal!

I just love her enthusiasm!

We hadn't eaten breakfast yet (and were bummed to miss our cute little Eden breakfast that we love), but we staked out a table at the library and set up our camp stove to make pancakes, sausage and eggs. Yummy feast!

My parents and Megan wanted to come watch the parade, so we found a spot towards the end of the route on the corner of the park so they would have time to get there and see the parade, even if they were a little late. The parking was crazy in Huntsville, but they found spots a couple blocks away, and everyone made it in time to watch the cute parade go by. I loved the lack of businesses that bugged me in Hyrum last year ("it's just a crummy commercial!"). And it was fun to see people I knew from young women or just around the valley.

Some really cool, really old tractors in this parade!

After the parade, we wandered through the car show and had fun looking up close at all the cool cars. We got to vote for our favorites, too, which was fun. We wandered around the park and glanced at the booths set up there, but it was mostly food and cowboy hats, and by then we were ready for our own picnic lunch, so we set up chairs in the field (it was so cloudy and cool and even sprinkled on us a few times!) and sat and ate while we listened and sang along to Eden's Yellow Rose (a band consisting of folks from our ward). They played for over three hours! Mom and Cal and I wandered across the street to Hunstville Square to the art show there, and ran into the kids' art teacher, Jenny Harris, who gave Cal a coupon for a free slice of Lucky Slice pizza from the food truck. That was a fun treat!

I really don't know what this is all about. Ha.

We didn't even have to sit in the shade since the whole
field was shady thanks to the clouds! Delightful!

Eventually we packed back up and made our way back to our house. We had planned/hoped to play on the lake, but it was cool and cloudy and breezy and rainy, so we just watched the highlights from the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contests on youtube and then everyone went home. We made hotdogs (what's more American?!) for dinner and watched The Emperor's New Groove (because The Sandlot isn't on Disney+ anymore?!) while we waited for the fireworks to start. We drove up near Nordic to watch the show in Liberty from our car in our jammies, which was perfect. Then home again and right to bed.