4th of July...My Favorite!

Our festivities started on the 3rd of July rather than the 4th. My brother, Greg, and sister, Charity, came up for the week and were here to celebrate with us. The first year I lived in Utah I lived in South Salt Lake and found out about a cool fireworks show that the city of South Salt Lake put on every year on July 3rd. I went there the first year with my roommates, fell in love with the whole thing and haven't missed a year since, even though it takes us a good 45 minutes to attend now that we live so far away. It's become kind of a tradition for us and I love it. You bring blankets and lawn chairs and a picnic and there is a band that plays fun oldies music and they have booths and things set up. Then when it's dark, they put on THE BEST fireworks show accompanied by patriotic music. So I dragged Charity and Greg along with us to the South Salt Lake show. They pretty much made fun of the band and the odd people walking around the whole time BUT they shut their mouths once the fireworks started! They were impressed and amazed at how good the fireworks show was. So we had a lot of fun playing with Chelsea and dancing to the music. Chelsea WAS NOT a fan of the fireworks AT ALL! She was just about ready to jump out of her skin she was so scared. She screamed and screamed and clawed at my throat the whole time. It was awful and I felt horrible. I'm hoping next year she will be a little more ok with the loud "booms".

Greg napping during the festivities
Chelsea's enjoying time with her Aunt Charity


dancing to all the fun oldies songs

waiting for the fireworks to start


Brad, Chelsea and Charity got to sleep in on the 4th while Greg and I got up at the crack of dawn and headed out to the Clearfield city building to participate in a 5K race. I thought it would be a fun thing to do with Greg. Greg kicked butt! He was 13th to cross the finish line and he came in 2nd for his age group. He finished in 21 min. and 53 sec. He got a red ribbon as his prize! I on the other hand STRUGGLED! There is nothin' like a 5K to remind you how out of shape you really are. I tried and ran some and walked some and then ran some more and walked some more. I was the 218th person to cross the finish line and I did it in 43 min and 51 sec. No I'm not proud of that time! But it did give the motivation I needed to get back to running again. Even if it's just a mile or two a day. It was a fun thing to get out and do and especially with my brother.


After the run we came home and I made homemade scones for breakfast and we dressed Chelsea up in her cute 4th of July outfit (thanks Gma D).

For the afternoon we just kind of hung around the house, watched a Stearman family favorite Mac and Me and continued a Stearman, and more recently a Petersen, Family tradition of making homemade ice cream. That evening we headed over to Brad's parent's house for a nice BBQ.

After the BBQ we had planned to go to Davis High School for round two of fireworks for the year, but after the episode with Chelsea the previous night I couldn't feel ok about going to another firework's show with her and putting her through that misery again. So since I was going to go home, everyone decided to skip the fireworks and go home with me. So we ended up putting Chelsea to bed and watching So I Married An Axe Murderer. It wasn't as spectacular as going to a firework's show would have been but, we did get to see a few fireworks from our deck in the back yard. All in all it was a nice 4th of July complete with homemade ice cream!