4th of July Fun

This 4th of July all my family got together at my parents house. It was non-stop fun the whole time. We all arrived the night of the 3rd. On the 4th we went to the Cedar City parade in the morning. It was hot hot hot, and a major lack or floats, but I love parades and being with my family made it fun. Dallas fell asleep on the way there and was quickly woken up by the loud fire truck sirens. Overall he did great at his first parade.

That afternoon we celebrated birthday's. Trey and Sadie both have birthday's in July. Dallas and Jordyn were born a day a part in August and instead of choosing which first birthday to attend, my parents decided it would be best to celebrate them together in July with everyone else. It was a lot of fun. The only hard part was Dallas desperately needed to go down for a nap so he was a little fussy, but seemed to enjoy things. It was his first time Dallas had cake, or really anything sweet for that matter. He liked his cup cake, but he seemed to be more into the wrapper :)

That night we watched fireworks and tried getting to sleep early. The next day we went boating. My dad was so amazing to rent a boat for the day. He was the driver while we all went wake boarding and tubing at Sand Hollow in Southern Utah. My mom volunteered to watch the three youngest kids. I realized that day was the longest I have ever spent away from Dallas. I think since I knew he was with my mom, who he ADORES, I was able to relax and have fun. It was a long hot day on the boat, but we had the best time.

After boating we all came home, then Dan and I showered and headed right back out to see "To Kill a Mocking Bird" the was playing at the Shakespeare Festiveal. This is Dan's favorite book so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the play. They did a great job and we were glad we could go. The next morning we were all soooo sore and burnt, making it a quiet morning. I asked my mom how Dallas did the day before and she said, Great! I was thrilled to hear it, but wasn't sure if she was just being nice. Dallas has always had such a hard time going to sleep. It always consisted of tears from him and me giving in to comfort him. Later that morning when I went to put Dallas down for his nap went down, no problem. I couldn't believe, but was thrilled and thought it was a one time thing. NOPE!!! My mom had magically sleep trained my boy!! I don't know what she did and she claims she didn't do anything, but I have a new boy now. He goes down easily now and if he doesn't go straight to sleep he will actually play in his crib for a bit, then go to sleep. It is the most amazing thing, THANKS MOM!

 
Later that afternoon we went to the aquatic center in Cedar City and had fun with the kids. Dallas loves to play in the water so we had a good time. That night we shot off fireworks. We went on the 4th to do fireworks, but it was really windy and we didn't want to miss the show the city was putting on so we postponed it until Friday. My brother is a bit of a pyro so being in Utah were you can buy lots of fireworks legally was a bit of a dream. We all had lots of fun taking turns lighting off different fireworks, but we saved the big one called "crack me up" for the end. RJ's wife, Danielle, did the honors lighting it and we couldn't believe it. It shot of the huge professional grade fireworks that lit up the whole shy. It was amazing!

Saturday my sister and brother left from home with their families and Dan and I stayed one more day. It was nice to have one more day of relaxing and spending time with my parents. We headed out on Sunday to come home. Thank you to my parents for providing a wonderful holiday and to my siblings for making the trip so we could all be together!

We are so thankful to live in a free country. There is always lots of complaining about this country, and yes there are problems, but Dan and I try to remember how blessed we are to live here. This country came to be through the lives of many and I want to try and never let their sacrifice go in vain.