July 4, 2012

Warning: Long post.  Feel free to just skim over the pictures.

The 4th of July is one of my most favorite times of the year, and one of those holidays that we’ve perfected over the years and so we just don’t mess with the traditions we have surrounding the day. 
Parades. Candy. Water fights. Eating.  Fireworks.  Family.  Food. 
Love it. 
The 4th of July festivities kick off every year with a few of us going to rope off our spot for the parade.  Yes, our spot.  Every year it’s in the same place.  Has been for as long as we’ve been going, I think.  Kaysville city doesn’t allow you to put anything down to save your place until the 3rd of July.  So we go at about 10:00 at night on July 2nd, rope off our area (about the size of an acre. j/k), and then “picnic at night” until it officially becomes July 3rd at midnight.  One of the great things about K-town is it has such a great feeling of community, so when we are out there at 10:00 at night we aren’t the only ones.  I think half of the expected parade goers are out there saving their spots as well and it’s a great time to chat and have fun…as long as no one is there to take our spot : )

One of the great things about the 4th is that we get to spend it with all of our families at the same time.  My parents and family sit with Devin and his family.  My sister is there with her husband and his family.  My brother is there with his wife and her family. It’s one big happy extended, in-laws included, family.  
 
Another great thing about the parade is that they have a water section.  This is when the entire parade route is turned into a community water fight.  Best ever.  And because we’ve been sitting in the same spot for so many years, a water fight tradition has started up with a guy that lives in a house across the street from our parade spot.  Each year, the water fight is “us” against “them”. 
Here’s my brother-in-law and the guy (I don’t even know his name) having a peace meeting before it get’s ugly, the neutral ground being marked by his foot:  The buckets of water to be used in the community water fight:



My bro-in-law rallying the troops for attack:

The boys wanted to be in the middle of all the action




And then they bring in the tanker trucks:

Once that phase of the day is over, it’s on to lunch and dinner.  These two events kind of mesh in together as one big event because it’s really all about eating.  Lunch was at my sisters house where we went swimming, and then dinner was at my in-laws, where the boys took a spin on their uncle’s motorcycle.


And then of course the fireworks.  We all go up to the high school to hang out for a few hours before the fireworks start.  There’s a fair and free rides on some blow up slides.  We all know how I can’t resist a good blow up slide.
It was a few hours of waiting around for the fireworks to start so we entertained ourselves with summersaults and glow sticks.

Once the fireworks started, Cameron was pretty nervous and scared and just wanted to go back to the car.  So that’s where I spent most of my time during the fireworks.  BUT, I have a moon roof in my car so I was able to watch them through the roof of my car.  Bonus.  I thought for sure that fireworks would be the one thing that would slow down Nathan and stop him from running around like a crazy person, but he paused for only a few seconds to make sure that the big boom sounds were safe and then off he went again.  This picture sums up what was doing before and during the fireworks: