4th of July on the 3rd!

Before I begin here's a little history about our 4th of July tradition: Every year everyone on my mom's side of the family gets together at my parents house to celebrate. We get together the day before, have a yummy dinner, hang out and enjoy each others company, then all of the kids and all of us adults that are tough enough to rough it sleep outside either on the trampoline or on blow up mattresses on the deck. In the morning we are awakened bright and early (well early for sure but at that point in the morning it isn't so bright!) by cannon blasts, we have a delicious breakfast, get ready and go to the parade. After the parade the kids go to the carnival for a little while, when they get back we have an even more delicious lunch (which is snacked on throughout the rest of the day so dinner isn't necessary), let that digest for a bit and then it's the main event........the WaTeR FiGhT!!! We always all get involved, even if by force! My parents have even started it in the house some years (this was one of those years)! We always have a blast and it's a great way to cool off on a hot July afternoon. After everyone has dried off we watch the city fireworks from the backyard (the past few years Marcel and I have headed back to Nephi for the fireworks so he can help set them up and control them when they are set off) and then do our personal fireworks out front on the road.

This year the 4th fell on a Sunday so the city celebrated it on the 3rd which means we all got together on the 2nd! As we were getting everything together to head over to Moroni my mom called us to let us know that my little brother and 2 of my cousins had rolled the 4-wheeler. I, being the worry wart I am, immediately panicked but my mom reassured us that everything was fine. I guess all 3 of them were on there and they were just being a little careless going up a hill, the 4-wheeler hit a rock and tipped over. Luckily my cousin JD (15 or 16 yrs old and pretty buff) was one of the 3. He was able to jump off before it tipped and tip the 4-wheeler back upright and off of the younger 2. Luckily the boys only suffered some scratches, bruises (which looked much worse in real life), and a headache. It could've been so much worse.... As soon as we got to Moroni I ran in the house and gave Austen a HUGE hug. I was so glad he was okay. Life is so unpredictable and we all take it for granted. The expression "see you later" is a hope, not a guarantee. My parents talked to Austen about the importance of driving responsibly, especially when other people are with you because you are then responsible for their lives. He was upset at what had happened and I'm pretty sure he learned his lesson.

Once everyone had arrived we had a yummy dinner together. Toby was already tuckered out from playing with all of the little kids so he slept under the table while we ate (he likes laying on my feet as you can see)!

A few hours after dinner Marcel had to go home. He had to work on the 3rd so he had to go get some rest so he could get to work on time. I'm not going to lie I was really bummed that he couldn't stay and I even got a bit teary when he left but I understood that he had to go. After he left we all got our sleeping arrangements figured out and got our beds ready. Most of the kids slept outside on the trampoline (the littlest ones slept in the house on the couch/floor), Jes, Toby and I slept on a blow up mattress on the deck, and the rest of the adults took the beds. You can imagine how much sleep we got having all of those kids together in one area, yeah....not so much! Every time Toby heard one of them start talking he would bark which always conveniently happened right as I was about to fall asleep. After fighting the barking, the kids noise, and the cold for a few hours I was exhausted and finally gave up and went in the house (around 4 a.m.) to find somewhere to crash but everywhere was taken. All of the beds, couches, and even some of the floor! So with no other options I snuck into my parents room, just like I used to do when I was little after having a nightmare, and went to my mom's side of the bed with Toby in tow.

"Mom.....Mom" I said nudging her arm.
"Hmmm?"
"I know this is really lame but can we sleep in here with you guys? Everywhere else is taken and Toby won't stop barking outside."

My mom being the loving mother she is made my dad scoot over so I could squeeze into their bed with them. It was so warm and quiet. Toby and I fell asleep almost instantly....and apparently we were the only ones! My mom said that I took up half of the bed while her and my dad shared the other (I guess Marcel hasn't been exaggerating)! Around 6 Jes came in shivering (the cannon woke her up) and wanting to climb into bed with us too. My mom got up so there would be room for her and started getting ready (she's the greatest!). Around 6:15 our neighbors car alarm kept going off at random and the kids said that he yelled out of his garage "that's for keeping me up all night"! Haha, what a funny guy! They totally deserved it ;)!
I had agreed to ride on CVMC's float for the Moroni City parade so I grudgingly, with the help of my mom (just like old times!), rolled out of bed around 6:30 to get ready. Everyone got ready, we had a delicious breakfast, then my dad took me to the float and everyone went to save their spot. The parade ended up being pretty fun and my family got tons of candy thanks to my handy scoop toss! I didn't get to see much of it though because by the time we got to the end of the parade and I walked all the way back to the other side of town where my family was, it was over. After the parade the kids went to the carnival for a few hours while the adults went back to the house to relax and get lunch ready. Lunch ended up being SOOO good (as usual) and everyone was stuffed! After a few hours everyone decided it was time for the water fight. I didn't really want to participate this year. I was having a bit of a pity party because I was still sad Marcel wasn't there so I was sitting in my parents room to hide (along with my dad and Jes). Out of nowhere my mom came in the room with a water gun (and not a little one!) and began squirting me until I agreed to change and come play, which didn't take long! She tried it on my dad too, who was laying on their bed, but he was too tired and refused! Jes ended up getting sick that morning so she had been in their room all day and wasn't expected to play so she got lucky! I was really glad that my mom got me to participate because it was a blast! We had so much fun and everyone, including Toby, got soaked!
Once everyone was too wet to care that they were getting sprayed with water we decided to be done! We all layed on the trampoline to dry off and I fell asleep.....with super white skin....and no sunscreen....in the full blown sun.....in July! Needless to say, I fried! My legs burned so bad that it hurt to bend my knees. I guess Austen wasn't the only one to learn a lesson that weekend!
Here's a picture of me and my super cute cousin Rakelle. We are "best friends", as she likes to say! When we were out on the trampoline drying off there was a slight breeze that was making Rakelle cold.
"Rakelle look! You have goosebumps!"
*gasp* "No I don't!" said with fear.
"You don't?!"
"No! Goosebumps are green and eat snails", said very seriously.
"Oh! Have you seen a Goosebumps movie?"
"No, I have a book!"
"Oh okay! So you have people bumps?"
"MmmHmm!"
Yeah....she's 4! So cute! :)
That night we all watched the city fireworks from the backyard (I know I'm lame for not getting any pictures). I was a little worried about how Toby would do since he'd never seen fireworks before but he did really well, in fact he slept through the whole thing! After the city fireworks were over we moved out front to the driveway where we did our personal fireworks, which were awesome! Some of the adults pooled money together and my uncle Rob went to Wyoming to get the good stuff....meaning illegal fireworks! We were having a good ol' time lighting those bad boys (as well as many other groups in our neighborhood) when all of a sudden a cop pulled up. This was new because they've never cracked down on illegal fireworks before. He threatened that if he had to come back we would be fined $425.00 I think it was (and I'm not sure if that was 1 big fine or per firework). That scared us for a bit but we could see that there were a lot of other people still lighting their illegal fireworks so we'd wait for someone else to light one and then we'd hurry and light a few because there's no way the cop could be in two places at once! We were all laughing so hard and joking about the whole thing. Pretty soon we had gone through all of our fireworks (fine free!) and were catching our breath from all the laughter. Most of the kids had fallen asleep on the lawn so we had to wake them up and get them to bed. Still tired from the night before I decided not to try sleeping outside again. Instead I set up a cot for me and Toby in the computer room. It was really peaceful, the perfect temperature and Toby slept soundly too! He only barked once in the morning when he could hear people walking around but we went back to sleep. When I officially woke up this is the first thing I saw...
...he had torn the plant apart. What am I going to do with him?! After cleaning up Toby's mess and getting all of our stuff together, everyone had a light breakfast and said our goodbyes. I was sad to say goodbye to everyone but I was excited to see my much missed hubby! I hitched a ride with my grandma to Nephi and spent the rest of the day relaxing at home with Marcel and our puppies! All in all it was a pretty great weekend!

~Marcel stayed pretty busy up in Salt Lake as you can imagine for the holiday weekend. He said that it took them an hour to go from one side of a park to the other because of the traffic and the patient was gone when they finally got there! He said he would've rather been with us but he stayed busy enough to keep his mind occupied.