Fourth of July

Because I grew up with a Father who thinks the 4th of July is a major holiday, I have had a hard time finding a satisfactory way of celebrating it in Utah where not much is legal!
However, this year I have to say, we had a lot of fun! We started bright and early in the morning at the Provo Freedom Festival Balloon Fest.
However, it was pretty windy, so only a few of the balloons actually took off. So, we mostly sat and waited and played and looked at the wide variety of balloons that there were. (Much to Chad's dismay because we had to get up at 6 in the morning on a holiday, I declared that we were going to have to try this again in the future because I think it will be really cool!)
The kids still had fun looking at the few balloons that were actually up.
And when that got boring, we went to look at the fire engine.
Then, we wandered over to check out some of the other Freedom Festival activities. (We learned one advantage of getting up early was that we had lots of the activities to ourselves at first. As the morning went on, it got busier and busier.)
They had a car show. Or I guess it was actually a car display since all of the cars belonged to one guy. (Clearly I'm not a car person because I was more concerned about getting the people in the picture and not necessarily the cars!)
They had bouncy slides, and since we were so early, the kids got to go lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of times!
They had a craft tent, which Emily and Addy loved.
They had a reptile show, which Cole loved. He even got to help hold the largest snake I have ever seen!
This picture does the snake more justice.
They got to dig for buried treasure in the back of a truck.
Then we went to an area that had a bunch of Colonial stuff.
Emily loved to watch the dancers.
And to play old-fashioned games.
They also learned about time out, Colonial style!
Then, we were worn out and had to take a rest on the grass. (You can also see that Emily and Addy got their faces painted at some point in the morning.)
After all of that, we had to go home and take naps so we could have enough energy to stay up and shoot off fireworks!
After we were well rested, we got together with some friends and had a bbq.
Eventually, Cole and Emily decided it was time to start shooting stuff off. As usual, the parachutes and smoke bombs were the most popular.
Cole really got into it more this year than he ever has.
Although he still much preferred picking the stuff out and not lighting it himself. The loud noises were still not his favorite!
Nor were they Addy's! She was perfectly happy to sit there and watch as long as someone covered her ears. If you took your hands off for even a second, she quickly grabbed them and put them back on!
Emily's favorite, as well as her friend's, were the sparklers. I have never seen kids use so many sparklers in such a short amount of time!
They loved skipping down the sidewalk as they waved their magic wands!
All in all, it was a fun day. Happy Birthday America!