4^th of July

(Or should I say 3^rd of July)

Here in Utah when 4^th of July falls on a Sunday they just celebrate it the day before. So all of our activities were on Saturday. It was a little weird celebrating the day before but it was sort of nice. When we first moved to Utah we figured that we would be spending a lot of holidays on our own. We actually had the opposite. We have so many invitations from family and friends that we just were not able to spend time with everyone. I better not get used to that though.

Riverton City had a carnival that weekend so we went with Joan and Russell to see what fun we could find. Our first game of the day was a sponge toss. The kids only got to play once and they had no idea what to do. They were supposed to get the sponge wet, toss it over to the other person and try to fill up the bucket as much as they could. Joshie would get his sponge wet and then wring it out before he tossed it to Eliza. Then Eliza would toss it back forgetting to wring the water into her bucket. It was pretty funny but they were giggling the whole time.

Our next game of the day was a hay stack dive. I had never heard of it but it is very similar to an egg hunt but they have to find the prizes in a pile of hay. Let’s just say that I don’t have very aggressive kids. (I know! Most of you that know Joshie are probably surprised) The kids collected a total of 9 prizes all together. Some of those other kids were coming away with bag full so it was not because of a lack of prizes. Again they had a ton of fun and that is what counts. They were upset about the lack of toys and candy until we headed over to the carnival rides. Russell got tickets to let them ride a car ride and then let Eliza and Joshie pick out a ride each. Joshie picked the large potato sack slide and Eliza wanted to ride the merry go round. Lots of fun!!

Later that night some of our Bakersfield friends, the Haneys, who happened to be in town stopped by to light off fireworks. There was no room at our house but we were able to find an empty cul-de-sac with no houses just across the street. The boys lighted the fireworks in the center of the cul-de-sac while the rest of us chatted and watched. Though I think Andrew was having more fun discovering all the cool things he could do with his camera. I can’t wait to see how those pictures turned out. From where we were at we could also see Riverton City’s Fireworks and a few others nearby. The kids got to try sparklers for the first time and thought they were a lot of fun. Despite the many warnings though both Joshie and Eliza managed to burn their fingers by touching the stick after it had burned out. Though they are fine now and had no fear of them a few minutes later. We also got to snack on some home grown pineapple that Joan and Russell grew at their home in Hawaii. YUMMY!!!

All in all it was a wonderful way to celebrate our freedom. With lots of friends and family!! (July 3)