Fun-Filled Fourth

For the 4th of July weekend, Rob went to Oregon with his sister and parents to get things ready for the cherry harvest. Rob calls it a "don't tell the doctor where Dad is, kind of weekend," because surely the doctor wouldn't approve of his little trip. Anyway, luckily Terri called and invited me to Provo for the weekend, otherwise we probably wouldn't have done anything for the the holiday. (Bear with all the pictures here, I want my parents to see as much of family events as possible. Plus, I've heard of people having their blogs printed into a book and kept as a journal, and I'd like to do that.)

We started the weekend by watching Terri perform with her belly-dance company. It was the first we'd seen her perform, and it was fun.

Too bad Terri covered up her cool costume!

We spent the night at my sister Laura's house then attended the Provo Freedom Festival Parade. We generally avoid large crowds like this, and I'm pretty sure this was the first big parade I've ever attended, but we had a good time. Matthew was enthralled with the parade for the first hour. He wasn't even scared by the loud fire engine, after fire engine, after fire engine.

Here's my bro Evan with Sarah and Porter, Carter, my bro Dan, sister Laura, and her husband Mike. We had great seats in the shade! My sister Sherry and her boys came too, but it must have been after I took all these pictures.

Here's the cute patriotic family in red, white and blue: Evan, Porter, and Toni.

Terri was so great to hold Matthew the whole time. The only thing the kids were disappointed with was the lack of candy thrown in the parade (I guess it's not allowed in this parade). I was happy with the one piece they got, rather than the bag-fulls of candy they usually get at parades.

Towards the end of the parade, when people were getting tired and not cheering much, Rep. Jason Chaffetz walked by. I think he's doing a great job, so I yelled out, "Yeah Jason," really loud. When he heard me, he stopped, found me in the crowd, and weaved through the crowd to shake my hand. Guess I have a really loud voice when I want to. Plus, how could he miss the crazy lady waiving her arms?! This is a picture of him shaking Toni's hand. I had to mention that or she'd be sad.
Like I said, the crowd got pretty quiet near the end of the parade. So when this semi came by, everyone heard Sarah loud and clear as she yelled "Cougars stink." I'm sure every head turned and stared. My kids are such turncoats...traitors...fair-weather-fans!!! I guess I need to have a little discussion with my kids about when it's not appropriate to show their preference for red. -Like when they are in Cougar Country! And the loud voice... I guess she gets it from her Daddy:) When Sarah got bored of the parade, she took off her shoes and filled them with grass. Then she went around offering "cake" to everyone.

It was fun having such a big crew at the parade. Here's Evan with Abby. We sat at the parade right in front of the Colonial Village, where my nieces Katie and Lindsey, and nephew Carter were volunteering. Here's Lindsey making a corn husk doll for Sarah.

Katie gave people samples of apple butter, and freshly churned butter on bread.

They were so cute, and did a great job- each putting in 12 hours of service over three days!

Sarah loved her doll, but didn't want her picture taken.Carter taught kids how to play Colonial games. Here he's teaching Nathan how to play a ring catch game. It looks like Nathan closes his eyes to catch things, just like his mama.

We toured a great museum that was right by the Colonial Days area. It was very cool.

The kids thought the replica of the golden plates was really neat.

Later, we played games and barbecued at Laura's, then watched the Stadium of Fire Fireworks from Rock Canyon Park. Katie was excited to teach us a bunch of fun games she had just learned from her first time attending girl's camp. Here's Laura, Katie, Lindsey, Nathan, Toni, Evan and Porter.

Matthew made sure his uncle Mike didn't miss any of the fireworks. The fireworks were fantastic!

Though we missed Rob, we had a great and exhausting Independence Day celebration. I wouldn't have dared venture out very far with the kids without the help of my family. Thanks guys!

AMERICA ROCKS!!!