Oh, I hope you all had a wonderful Independence day. We had a great weekend here. On Friday, we went to the Freedom Festival Parade in Provo. We haven’t ventured south for this parade in many years, because, honestly, it’s just too big. Too many people! You have to park so far away and then try and find a spot to sit, it just didn’t seem worth it. Until I have a son marching in the parade, and then my attitude shifts. Cole had to be at the school at 7 am, and the plan was to drop him off and then head to Provo. Well, Ryan wasn’t feeling well, so he wasn’t going to go out and venture too far away from a bathroom (if you get my drift). I had to decide if I take the 4 kids BY MYSELF to the parade in the 100 degree heat.
I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and decided to stop being a chicken and take the kids to the parade. We got chairs, a blanket, an umbrella, and lots and lots of water, and packed everyone into the car. Along the way, I got a call from my sister-in-law, telling me that they had saved a spot, and if we wanted to join them, to meet them at 750 E. Center. Ok. We took a detour through the BYU campus, since 9th east was closed, and hoped I could get somewhat close to center street. We ended up parking along 7th east at about 6th south. Only 6 blocks to haul everything–that’s not so bad, right? We decided not to bring all the chairs, because, really, who would carry them all? With the water and the snacks and the blanket and the umbrella and the two chairs we had, everyone had their hands full.
We found our cousins playing cards, and set up our chairs and blanket. Only an hour and a half to wait before the parade starts! But the time flew by quickly once more people got there. One trip to the bathroom (which was only a couple of blocks away) and it was time to start. It really was a good spot they had picked out, with big trees giving us shade. Since it was a little overcast that day, we didn’t have to worry so much about sunburns, although we applied the sunscreen anyway.
Cole’s band was number 49 on the schedule, and at about 45, I got ready. I had the camera out and told everyone around us to cheer for him, but darn it, he was on the other side. Again. I decided to try and catch him at the end of the parade (only about 4 blocks away) and bring him back to us. He looked so hot and tired, but he had made it. I’m proud of him. We got his flute case and his hat box and then walked the 1/2 mile back to the place where his cousins were. Then we enjoyed the last few minutes of the parade.
On the walk back to the car, my helpers were not so willing. Somehow our stuff had gotten heavier, and even though we had one more person to help us, his arms were full with his band uniform, so there were even more things to carry. After only one trip and fall, we eventually made it back to the car.
The kids earned lunch from Wendy’s, since no one got lost or complained too awfully much, and since Cole had marched the whole way.
Once we got home, we rested and spent a couple of hours at home before we went to my sister Chrissy’s house for a picnic dinner. The kids had so much fun playing with all their cousins, and it was a lovely evening. We even did some fireworks in the backyard once it got dark.
Driving home, I hoped I could stay awake, I was so tired. It helped that we passed all kinds of fireworks on the way home.
My brother Scott’s family came home with us, too. Scott is back at home so he can work, but his wife and four kids are staying with us for the next week, and the kids are having so much fun! They have two boys for Cole to play with, a boy for John to play with, and a girl Jenna’s age. If only they had a nine year old girl, they’d be nearly perfect! Since we don’t get to see these guys very often, it’s oh so much fun when they do come, even if it is kind of chaotic here at the house.
Saturday we kind of played it slow. I think everyone was pretty tired from the festivities of the day before, and the Arizona crew has been running around a lot for the past week, so we didn’t plan anything. The kids just had so much fun PLAYING, that we didn’t want to disturb them with organized activities. Megan and Cole and the two boys even jogged or rode bikes to the grocery store to buy some snacks.
We ended up lighting some fireworks Saturday night. They “blew up” a headless Barbie, and had a lot of fun doing it.
Today at church was a bit different. They split our huge ward last week, and now we’re kind of a small and lonely ward. We’ve been getting there 20 minutes early just to get a seat. This time we got there about 10 minutes early and there was NOBODY there. I guess we don’t have to go early anymore. Even with my brother’s family there, it seemed so sparse. I had been asked to lead the music in primary, since all the primary music leaders have gone to the other ward. We went from having three primaries (junior, middle, and senior) to two primaries, and those were both pretty small. But when you ask the kids to be quiet, it’s actually possible, so that will be nice.
We’ve had a nice day with the family. The meatloaf took too long to cook and we were hungry, but other than that dinner was nice. Ryan is now making cinnamon rolls. It’s kind of a nice SLOW day, in preparation for the VERY VERY busy week ahead.
I hope you also had a fun filled or relaxing time with your loved ones this holiday.
We took like a thousand pictures! One of the most exciting things is that all the people in our group had a peacock walk like, two feet away from us! 
The aviary also has a bird show, but it wasn’t open when we were around that part.(The aviary is huge, trust me.) 
Anyway, in case you didn’t know, we were there for a third-grade field trip. After we were finished at the aviary, we played in the park and took a few pictures there too! 
Then we had lunch with all the other classes and then took the long, long, bus ride back to the elementary school.
This wasn’t exactly the “wearing of the green”, but I thought I would just include some pictures to show how much fun your kids can have with just a simple pad of sticky notes. 
Why yes, those were my sticky notes, kids, and no, thank you, I would not like them back.
Since eggs hadn’t gone on sale yet, I didn’t have tons and tons of eggs boiled up for them to color like I usually do (I only boiled about 18), so we tried our hand at blowing out the eggs and then decorating them. 
Ryan was not enthused about trying a new way to do our eggs ( I think he was grossed out and a little afraid I’d try to save those eggs and scramble them up for breakfast the next morning. I’ll admit I thought about it, but in the end, we just let all those egg innards go down the garbage disposal.) but we were not deterred. 
Although a few of them got squished and broken in the blowing process, I think the kids did a great job. 
This year I used food coloring instead of the little tablets (since I couldn’t find the tablets until after we had started), but it worked just fine. Who knew I could just use twenty drops of the food coloring and a little vinegar? I guess it’s said that on the box of “assorted food coloring and egg dye” all the time, but I always used the little tablets. 
Since some of the eggs are hollow, we hung them on a little Easter tree and have put them around. Hopefully we can save them until next year without breaking them.
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