Happy Independence Day to you, and you, and you!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Today we had plans to go to the parade, and then go visit my sister Becky for her little guy Caleb's birthday.  Well, we've been home from the parade for an hour now, and traffic is still backed up in front of our house.  Not to mention, the Stadium of Fire traffic is going to be horrendous as well.....so, sadly, we are going to be home bodies today.

I read up online that you could go get your seats reserved starting at 5 AM on center street.  So, we figured leaving around 7 we would still be able to get good enough seats.  Ha!  Were we wrong!  The sidewalks and shoulders were completely covered with blankets and chairs.  Walking up quite a few blocks, we found a patch of dead grass where no one was sitting, there were just a few chairs set up. So we set out our blanket and watched the marathon go by.  About half an hour later, it became apparent why the spot was left vacant.  The chairs all read Alpin stake, so I assumed it was a ward's reserved spot.  Not so.  It was a family of weirdies.

I was shocked at the way they behaved towards one another, especially grandma who kept yelling at the kids, and the kids who kept throwing popping thingies at all the parade goers, and parade walkers, and grandpa who kept using a squirt gun to shoot parade walkers as they went by.  It was absolutely ridiculous to have to sit behind them, and halfway through the parade, we'd had enough.  Not to mention the Joe Danby lookalike from Support Your Local Sheriff, who got up on the back of his truck and started singing original songs about this and that, until a Savant with a keyboard walked by and asked if they could do a duet.  And they did.  ........

Haha, for the most part, Tristan enjoyed himself.  He loved when the police motorcycles came by with their lights and sirens.  And all the big flashy floats and horses.  I guess parades are more for children who get excited and love them.  Being older now, I thought it was kinda lame.  That's also because we got seats near the end, and by then everyone was huffing and puffing and the marching bands were only marching.  And the obnoxious kids and grandparents screaming in front of us didn't help.

We were glad we started walking home when we did, traffic was terrible!!

We ended up hanging around the house until we left to wait for the fireworks around 8.  We went to the MTC fields, which were starting to fill up, and then waited until 10:30 (holy cow, was it supposed to take that long???) for the fireworks from Stadium of fire.  Meh, they were ok, the fact that Tristan was way done by the time they started and the kids throwing glow sticks all around us kind of detracted from them.  And traffic was a beast going home.

We decided, it was fun to be festive this year and to do the traditional things, but next year we are just going to celebrate on our own.  We'll think of some fun and clever things to do, and probably they will be more exciting.  I mean, I love watching the fireworks, what I don't love is being around insane people.

But, in keeping with the spirit of the Holiday, I am thankful for an independent country.  Yes it has it's problems (growing more and more each day it seems), but it is still probably the best country to live in.  We are blessed in so many ways, we have a home, a car, food on our table, the option to work or play. Not many people can say that.  And I am glad for it.  While I don't approve of a lot of things our country is doing right now, I am thankful that I still have a choice in how I live.