4th of July!!

Oh, how I love the 4th of July in Utah. It's just always such a fun day. This year started with absolutely no plans. We didn't really know what we would do on July 3, but when I came downstairs from bed at 8:10am on July 4 I said, "Happy 4th of July! Let's go to the parade!" And we just kept going from there. It was a great day.

We quickly threw on our red, white and blue and made our way over to East Millcreek to see Brian and Rachel in their parade at 9am. Luckily, we found our good friends, Todd and Anna and kids, and joined them to cheer on the parade.

The cousins admiring baby Kate after the parade in the one spot of shade we could find.

And . . . the camera died with that picture of Kate. From there we made our way through the Sugar House Arts Festival. It was just alright, but the food trucks that were parked there were AWESOME. Oh boy, did we eat well - thai red curry crab cakes, Monte Cristo crepe and waffles covered in strawberries and raspberries. Mmmmmmm. When we were good and full and overly hot we headed home to a cool, air conditioned house for a very patriotic nap!!

In the evening we picked up Noodles and Co. and went to visit Fred and Rama for dinner. It was so nice to be there. We sat out front in their yard and watched the kids put on their very own parade for us over and over.

The start of the parade. They even had a bag of candy (collected from the morning parade) that they threw out at us as they passed by.

The girls were "Scooter Girls" in the parade.

And Zachary was the self proclaimed "Running Boy". It really was quite spectacular.

The menfolk.

Grandma Rama and Kate.

Mr. Z Man.

"Baby for a hat, Baby for a hat, la di da di da, Baby for a hat."

And then . . . the party really got going when Brian and Rachel and fam arrived. We had some very excited kids to see these cousins.

We left the Buchanan Clan just in time to find Landon and Sarah and fam at Sugarhouse Park for fireworks. We threw our blanket down with them, talked for a few minutes and the show began. A great show at that. And the most amazing part of the show . . . Ava actually watched it. She even eventually took her fingers away from her ears and kind of liked it. Last year she went sobbing in shear terror back to Landon's house with Scott. She is so brave now.

We finally got kids to bed around 11:30pm. What a fun day. I love 4th of July.