4th of July

Our 4th of July was very busy this year. In fact, when talking about the 4th of July, Leah still refers to it as "our very busy day." But it was very fun!

The night before, I took Leah downtown to check out the festival area. I had never really been there before, but I thought Leah would have a good time checking things out with me. We started with Leah getting her face painted. 

The cost of rides was ridiculous! So I told Leah she could just pick one ride to go on. She choose to ride this train. All it did was go around in a circle. But it lasted for a long time, so I guess that almost made it worth it. And she was having fun which is the most important thing.

We looked around for a treat and decided to share a shaved ice. I let Leah pick the flavors to put on it and she choose tigers blood, blue raspberry, and pina colada. I was amused that she unintentionally made her shaved ice red, white, and blue. It was nice to have some fun mommy-daughter time together. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early so that we could go over to the church for the 4th of July breakfast and flag ceremony. Afterwards, we went to join some of the Millers at at the Freedom Festival Parade.

Leah and Kylie loved seeing the princesses go by.

The BYU float is always a favorite for our family. But my favorite this year was seeing the cast of Studio C zoom by on scooters. We really like to watch Studio C.

And the BYU Football truck always gets the crowd excited. Leah tried to give Cosmo a high five, but he didn't come over close enough to us.

Corbin did pretty well at the parade despite the fact that he was hot and tired.

These two cuties are such good buddies!

Leah was excited to see the flag the scouts put up in our front yard.

After resting for a bit, we went up to Ross's mom's house for a BBQ and fireworks with some of our Leslie family. Believe it or not, Corbin spent a lot of time playing ball. He thinks he's big enough to shoot the ball in the big basket.

Here we are getting ready for the fireworks to begin.

Leah loves to see fireworks, but Corbin is not too sure about them. He actually fell asleep about half way through. I think that falling asleep is his way of dealing with his uneasiness.

The kids were so happy when Cristina showed up with some sparklers.

So these fireworks that William and Alex are holding are NOT sparklers! It was making me a little uneasy to see them holding such large explosive in their hands. But don't worry, they were okay.

Leah made sure I got some pictures of the fireworks. She loves seeing fireworks.

Things did get a little bit crazy at the end though. Don decided to get a big aerial firework called a "Whoa Daddy." It had 9 launching cylinders that sent the fireworks straight over our heads before exploding. Or at least that's what it was supposed to do. We were awed by the first couple going off so big and beautiful, but then one went off only about 20 feet off the ground. That got us a little on edge and sent the kids running away from the curb. But when another one went off even lower than that, shooting sparks straight at us, even the adults ran for cover in the garage. Luckily no one got hurt. Leah said one of the sparks hit her in the leg, but it didn't burn her at all. In the end, we all had a good laugh about it. But next time I'll make sure there is plenty of space between me and those big fireworks.