Red, White, & Blue

Oh, how I love the 4th of July!

 
Other than living in Philly for one summer, this was the only 4th of July we didn’t celebrate in Rexburg, ID. I’ll admit I got a little homesick when I saw friends post pictures at the Rexburg parade,but other than that, we had an amazing 4th!

We celebrated with just our little family and it was wonderful.
No stressing over being on somebody else's timetable. We didn’t have to worry about missing naps. It was stress free with pretty happy kids.

We had a festive 4th of July breakfast. Then headed to the pool.

During nap time, Pat and Ledger ran to buy some fireworks. Pat also introduced Ledger to 7-Eleven slurpies. I still can’t get myself to pay for sno cones after selling the shack, so it was as close as Ledger has gotten to one :) He’s still talking about it.

 

The fireworks scared all of our kids. Ledger immediately ran inside and the twins burst into tears. Haha I guess Pat did them a little too close. So we stuck with sparklers and poppers.
    

We had a fun festive little dinner and then drove around until we found a great little spot to watch the fireworks in Sandy. Pat and I were curious, we’ve both grown up watching the Melaleuca Firework show in Idaho Falls, which is the biggest show west of the Mississippi. Then while in Philly, we watched their show downtown, which is top 5 in the US, so we wondered how other shows would compare. But we were pleasantly surprised! From where we were sitting, we were able to see all the different firework shows in the Salt Lake Valley. It was really neat, and we ended up leaving a little early due to three tired boys who rarely stay up past their 7:30 PM bedtime. :) We missed all traffic, which put the cherry on top to our perfect day.

Oh, how I love these boys.

And I’m surprised, every 4th, sometime during the day, memories of Preslee sneak into my mind - how it was our last holiday together. How she snuck over to the homemade rootbeer more times than I could count and ended the day on a sugar high. I remember not getting a single picture of her,(I must have forgotten my camera or something) and having the prompting to get my camera out late that night when we got home. But I remember her being so tired, and I didn’t listen…

We live and learn right?

With all the chaos that has been going on lately within our country, I’m still so grateful for the place in which we live. We are all so blessed with the freedoms we have, and for the people who fought for it.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!