The 4th of July is our family’s favorite holiday. Robert’s family has a tradition of going down to Huntsville, Ut to celebrate. That is where my father-in-law grew up. This year we took our tents and camped in the backyard of the house he grew up in. There were way too many of us to all sleep inside.
Utah revised their fireworks laws to allow fireworks up to 150 feet this year. So, Sunday night we saw quite a few people, ourselves included, getting a head start on the festivities. Most of the kids loved seeing the brightly colored lights, but many did not like the noises. Of course, because you need it to be dark before lighting fireworks, kids were also up late, but that was okay.
My girls and one of their other girl cousins all slept together in one tent. They stayed up kinda late talking. Oh well, I guess that’s what girls do. Since the girls were out, we had two of my nephews join our tent. They are 5 and 7. They talked for about 10 minutes, then all three boys, including Michael, were out.
The next morning found us getting up bright and early to put on our matching Newey shirts and heading out to the park for breakfast. Taylor has been talking about this breakfast for days before. Her favorite part is the link sausages. There were also scrambled eggs and pancakes with syrup. After breakfast, we camp out along the parade route waiting for the parade to start. Right before the parade starts they have a fly-over. A couple of jets fly over from Hill Air Force Base. The kids, of course, all stand for the flag. They all knew beforehand that when the flag comes by you remove your hat, stand and salute. It amazes me when I go to parades and people don’t. This is a great country and we need to show some respect. Anyway, the parade was great, the kids got more candy than they needed. Thankfully we didn’t get too wet and we got to see some really old tractors.
After the parade we all head back to the house. They brought out the croquet game and some of the older kids and a few adults played. The rest of us watched and talked. The littler kids all played some other game. We had brought Kami and her puppies, so the kids had a fun time playing with them. We did sell one puppy on our way down to Utah, so we had 2 for the kids to cuddle and play with. Around 1, we had lunch, and then more playing. We finally got our tent taken down and the car loaded up sometime later and we headed home. I would have loved to have gone to the Melodrama, but we left our other dog and garden, and animals at home and needed to get back. We did have some friends helping us take care of that, but I’m a little OCD and wanted to check on things. Our friends did great and I didn’t need to worry.
When we got home, we gave the kids the little snap pops that Robert had gotten for them. Rachel was really having a tough time with hers, they did not want to pop. Then the kids got to play with some sparklers while we waited for it to get darker. I love where our house is because we can see fireworks all over the place. We just sat out on our deck and we can see all kinds that people were lighting off in town, plus the city’s display. We can also see some over towards Dietrich and I think even Shoshone or Jerome, I’m not sure which. They are kinda small and far away, but we can see them.
One really nice thing that I’ve noticed is that whoever comes over is considered family. We had my sister-in-laws good friend stop by one night and just hang out with us. She has been known to the family for so long that she is part of the family now. Then, my sister-in-laws sister-in-law and her family joined us for the parade and lunch later. Everyone is just accepted and loved in. I really love that. I am so blessed to have so much good family around me, both on my side and on my husband’s side.
It was a great weekend to be with family and a great time to live in the greatest country in the world!
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