Fourth of July

This year we were actually home for the Fourth of July celebration, which was a nice change. It seems like we are usually in Jackson Hole or Bear Lake for the 4th. We had a fun BBQ at my mom and Wayne's Sunday night to help kick off the celebration. My cousin Nesha and her family were here from Las Vegas and it is always good to see them when they are in town. Alex and I made the infamous flag cake to take to the party. I asked Alex if he wanted to make it our little tradition to make the cake for the 4th of July and he told me he would be happy to go shopping with me to buy some dessert, but it was way too hard and long to make such a cake. Everyone went on and on about how yummy the cake was, so hopefully he will change his mind! He was quite proud of himself...

On the 4th we went up to the Huntsville Breakfast in the Park celebration. Of course, we were too late to make the breakfast in the park (due to the fact that we had some late night fireworks at Grams and Gramps & also because Matt was doing his weight lifting). But I actually think it worked out better that way. We got there in time to see part of the parade, which the kids LOVED because they were able to catch tons of candy and they had front row action to be totally grossed out by the horses pooping. There was one horse that was kind of nervous...he started rearing up and he was right by the kids! Then we ate some funnel cake (which I had never had) for breakfast. It was yummy and totally bad for you. We played games: cup commando, pirate treasure games, crossbow shooting, and won more pop and prizes. Addy got tatoos. We ran into lots of friends and played at the playground. After that we had yummy burgers for lunch (free with Matt's VIP cards :) We heard the breakfast was extremely crowded and it was chaos, but the lunch was yummy and easy, so it worked out for the best. The only bad part about going was that it made me sad that we didn't buy the Huntsville house we were trying to buy last year. It is in the perfect location and it would be so fun to have a cabin there, even though it isn't very far from home. It is still a dream we have and I can see us celebrating the whole weekend there with friends and going to the 4th of July celebration, then back to the house for a swim, then back to the park for the fireworks. It is the friends and family that make a cabin fun and there is so much to do in Huntsville that we hope someday we can make it happen. We left the celebration and headed to see the movie "Soul Surfer". It was about a girl who lost her arm in a shark attack while surfing, basically a giant sob fest with a really good message. I'm glad my kids got to see it, although Connor says he is never going to try surfing after seeing that! The strongest message from the movie was to have courage and to overcome hard things. I hope my kids picked up on that!

We all came home and Matt and Addy had a long nap (I had a short one). Then we went up in the foothills with the Gloeckners and Grandma and Grandpa to watch the fireworks and eat popsicles. Even better than the fireworks was the beautiful pink and orange sunset! What a beautiful day!