let freedom ring baby claire!

oh, what fun and mischievous memories this holiday conjures up! there was that time my family sat so close that the remnants of the fireworks fell straight down into our faces. there was that year that my friends and i had a huge war with a ton of roman candles, each of us nursing our fair share of burns when we were done. there were countless independence days spent trying to blow stuff up with firecrackers, from barbie dolls to milk jugs filled with gasoline. there was that one late night that ended with us rolling a flaming trash can off a dock into the lake. and there was that one fourth of july that amber and i spent together, comforting our little girl and reassuring her that fireworks really were a good thing. :)

the day started nice and early. we were up at 5:45 to go see the local balloon festival. we weren't expecting a huge crowd that early in the morning, but we were proven wrong and we ended up getting in a nice long morning walk. we wandered around amongst the hot-air balloons as they were being blown up, then settled in to enjoy the spectacle of 30 balloons taking off at once. the weather had other ideas. a sudden gust of wind blew many of the balloons over so they decided, though not severe at all to us land dwellers, the impending storm would be a little too difficult to battle on its own turf in the sky. so we packed it up and attempted to go see the parade.

we held no hopes of getting a great seat at the parade. it seemed half of provo was already camped out along the parade route staking claim to the best of spots. we ended up lucking out and ran into a football buddy of mine who had some extra seats that we were welcome to. nice. well claire slept through most of it, and when she was awake seemed far most interested in everything other than the parade, but we still had an enjoyable time.

in the evening we headed up north to visit my aunt and uncle for some family fun. we did some grilling, played at the park, and got in a fun game of ultimate frisbee, amber's first time playing since getting pregnant. she still rocks at it. :) afterwards we headed to the church parking lot to enjoy the show put on by my cousins. after a few loud bangs, claire wasn't quite sure she enjoyed fireworks and started to give us a little whimper. after we explained to her how much fun fireworks are, she seemed to not mind them so much. :)