Happy 24th

I love living in Bountiful for many reasons, but one thing I really love is how Bountiful celebrates the 24th of July. Actually, we celebrate on the 23rd so nothing interferes with festivities in Salt Lake but I prefer our small-town celebrations anyway.

For as many years as we've lived here, we've invited friends and family up from SL and from around here to celebrate with us. It all starts out with a parade down Main Street in the evening. It's pretty much a preview for the big SL parade the next morning because most of the same floats and groups are in it. This year we watched the parade with the Preslars and Gonzalez's. The kids had a blast catching candy (What other time is it o.k. for a mom to say, "Run out in the street and grab more candy!" to their kids??).Paige & Romney spent the whole time dancing to the parade music. Who knew band music could be so cool? :}Rachel, Meggan and I have intertwined history, too. Rachel lives in Meggan's home ward and they were both counselors together at Brighton Camp. Meggan & I now live in the same ward and all 3 of our husbands are Utah football junkies together. These are my girls. :)

After the parade was over and we were sufficiently sweaty and sticky from candy, we headed back to our house for a bbq with more friends and neighbors. Steenblik's brought a cotton candy machine this time (the kids were in heaven), Rachel cooked up some carmelized onions for the hamburgers (the adults were in heaven) and the kids jumped on the trampoline and squirted each other with water guns. Aaahh, the lazy days of summer. Then we all headed up to the Blake's house to watch fireworks that are set off a block from their house. And let me tell you, Bountiful knows how to do fireworks. They go on for about 30 minutes and have multiple "finales" where we think it's over and then more fireworks start up. Elle wasn't even scared, which was a bonus. She kept saying "pretty" and "boom!" every time they went off.It's another tradition of ours to go to the chuckwagon breakfast the next morning at the park with Blakes. This year, though, Mike had to work and the Blakes are at Lake Powell so the kids and I went alone. They didn't mind. Our favorite home teacher, Brother Thurgood, was serving pancakes and even made Elle a baby-sized one. After a yummy breakfast, we headed next door to the park where the Hand-cart Days carnival was going on.I guess I need to take the red, white and blue decor down after today but it's been a fun month of celebrations.