24th of July

The Pioneer Day Parade was our traditional early morning 24th of July celebration.  The kids really like the parade.  And it's a fun tradition for the Hanna-bans Birthday.  We set our spots up the afternoon before and arrived by 6:30 am to keep them reserved.  I won't do that again, since it made for a VERY long day - but, luckily - it won't be needed.  We were the only ones there that morning until about 8:30 when the rest of the people started showing up (the parade started at 9 am).  There are definite benefits to living in a small-ish town!

What a bright and beautiful morning!

The girlies got their princess crowns - Krystal has FOUR now!  That's their favorite part of the parade, I think.  That - and James boy making sure they get the cool prizes that are thrown to the crowds.  :)

These are the souvenirs the boys picked:

Best picture of the morning right here!  (Really shows the joys of having a younger brother.)  hahaha!

The g-MA and g-PA chill at the parade with their grandkids every year - plus get there as early as I say - plus bring donuts - plus stay happy the whole time.  They are the real deal.  :)

We were beat after the parade and took a break at the grandparents before our big hike up Mapleton Canyon (pics in the next post), so here we are just hanging out.  (Krystal thought it would be a hilarious picture to have Aaron sporting her princess crown -- so, enjoy all the hilarity!)

 

Later that night (yep - we go strong all day!), we took the kids to the Mapleton celebration which consists of a ping-pong ball drop from a helicopter --for prizes!--, live music, cheap food and treats, and an amazing firework show.

Here's a pic of the helicopter dropping ping-pong balls:

It was so crowded and I was terrified that I was going to lose my kiddos.  They had to line up according to age and then they were let onto a field where the balls were all released.  Every kid could collect one ball with a number on it -- and hope their number was a winner!  I couldn't really see my kids among all the swarms of people, so I just put my camera up in the air and randomly clicked - then I searched for my kids in the pictures on the computer at home - and cropped them close.  :)  I was able to get Marissa and Sierra, but the littles were in none of the pictures I took.

I made Aaron go with the littler kids and stick with Krystal due to my paranoia :).  He was a good sport and complied.  Krystal was not too happy with being pelted in the head with a million ping-pong balls and just wanted to get the heck out of there!  I was able to get this one picture of them walking to the exit - Krystal was crying (but, she got a ping-pong ball like a good girl.)  Ha!

 

These are their lucky numbers!

 

Marissa was just happy to be there with her BFF - this was their last hoo-rah together before Sierra moved across the state :(!

We were hoping for prizes!  (but, alas - we will have to hope to win next year, because none of our numbers were winners).

Signs of an exhausting (yet fun and fulfilling) day -- and we haven't even got to firework time yet!

 

It sprinkled with rain on and off throughout the evening - and we were rewarded with several rainbows ... here's a crummy picture of one of the double rainbows we enjoyed.  They were so bright and beautiful!  I wish the picture could do it justice.

We then got to enjoy a spectacular sky-diving show:

 

And the kiddos danced like crazy to the live music:

Kristy and James brought tons of glow stix (which I FOR SURE will remember next time - cuz they were a hit!) - the kids had so much fun dancing with their glowing bodies!

 

Almost time for fireworks!

We bought blue cotton candy that was super yummy -- but turned our mouths all blue!

 

So grateful for good friends.  We wish the Mendonsas weren't so far away!  We miss them!  (And Marissa especially misses Sierra).  They are lucky to still be connected through technology - and they make efforts to meet up as often as possible.

Maybe next 24th of July will be another one of those times!  (fingers crossed!)  It's a fun day.