The Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was a blast! We had so much fun! You have to know that the fourth is one of my favorite holidays! We always had so much fun with my family. My family would always have a big barbecue and we would play volleyball and other games in the back yard. Then at night, we would do fireworks with our neighbors in the cul-de-sac. It was always a great time! Well, I have to say that my in-laws are great, but we have had to coach them a little about all the fun things you can do on the fourth! In their defense, they were gone last year, so this was our first shot at it all together.

Since my family always does a barbecue, I thought it would be fun to make my ribs. So I got all the fixings and brought them down to Russ and Diane's house. The ribs take about five hours to cook, so we had to get there in the morning. Scott and I got them all ready and put them in the oven. Then we just snacked on food and hung out for a little while.

The hardest part about getting my in-laws in the partying mood, was they had a bit of a tragedy occur on the fourth. There beloved cat, Hobbes, died. Russ and Diane were just about to leave for the airport to pick up Scott's brother, Daniel, when Diane realized she hadn't seen Hobbes in awhile. So we all went searching and Diane and Scott found Hobbes dead in the bushes. Sad times! So we gathered him up and made a burial spot for him. Then when Daniel got there, we finished burying him. It was sad, but for Scott's sake, I am going to include some of the pictures of Hobbes below:

Hobbes was a bit of a cranky cat, but we all loved him! He usually wasn't the cuddly type, he was more of the "if you touch me the wrong way I might take out your hand" type. But a few months ago, he really started to warm up to me. He would rub against my leg and even sit in my lap and let me pet him. We will all miss our Hobbsey-Bobs-Bob (my nickname for him)!

So after the mourning of Hobbes, I needed a little more fun! So Scott and I played Sequence while everyone picked up Daniel from the airport. Then we had the finishing of the burial, and shortly thereafter, we had our dinner. Dinner was so good (though the ribs didn't turn out quite as yummy as usual...which I think may be due to using a different oven...they still were yummy though)! We had ribs, corn-on-the-cob, rolls, barbecue baked beans, homemade mashed potatoes (made by me), and watermelon! It was super yummy! By the end, we were all stuffed.

Shortly after dinner, we all got ready to go to Stadium of Fire (a fireworks and music show put on at BYU). Before we left though, I managed to get a few fun pictures of us. You may notice Alexander's adorable new outfit that says "Mommy's little firecracker" with his matching sandals! I just loved the outfit so much that I had to get it for him. I also painted my toes cute for the holiday. Here are the pictures of us:

Well, we got all ready and headed out to the stadium. It was a pretty hot day (especially for a pregnant girl) but luckily our spots were in the shade! The show started off with an opening prayer where the person praying, prayed that we would get rain! That is when I thought, "Only in Utah, do you start a concert with a prayer and pray for rain!" But we did need the rain. It has been so hot this year that there have been lots of fires. Luckily, the man's prayer was answered and it rained the next day. It rained buckets and buckets from Orem to Bountiful (that is as far as we traveled the day after the fourth, so it may have rained other places too)! The concert was fun. We saw the Beach Boys and a former American Idol, Scotty McCreary, opened the show. I was surprised that on their 50th year tour, the Beach Boys still sounded so good! I was also surprised that they were still playing. It was a great show though! Anyway, we had been a little worried as to how Alexander would handle the fireworks, so I got him these cute protective earmuffs online. He did great overall. When the fireworks started, he was okay. He had even seen some off in the distance and liked it, until the show up close had huge fire pillars. That is when he got scared and clung to my neck so hard that I thought he might choke me. It is nice to know he feels safe in my arms :) Well, I got him to calm down and he really started to enjoy the show, but the loud bangs at the end, scared him again. This time he wasn't as scared though and was only scared for a few minutes. I was glad to see that overall, he did really well! He also did well at being up all night. It was the latest he had ever stayed up before. We didn't get him to bed until 12:30 am! The nice thing was that he slept in until 10:00 am so we all got some good sleep that night. Below are some pictures of us at the Stadium of Fire:

The fourth really was a blast overall...pun intended! It was great to have a yummy barbecue, play a few games, see an awesome fireworks show, and spend time with family! We loved it! Well, that is all for now. Tune in next time for fun in the park.