4th of July- St. George Edition

We spent the 4th of July in St. George this year. We visited Zach's parents for the whole week actually. One of the many perks of working at Adobe is that they shut down all their offices in the United States for the week of the 4th of July. It is marvelous. 

I woke up early enough to go on a jog. I was running my normal route when I turned the corner and was startled to come face to face with two young deer presumably going for their morning jog! It was funny to see them just running along the street through the neighborhood. They were just as startled to see me as I was them so they decided to cut through a vacant lot. By the time I got my camera out they were a ways away, but they were much closer than this picture portrays. It was definitely an exciting way to start the day! 

After I got home and showered we went straight to the St. George 4th of July parade. They boys came prepared with grocery sacks to stash their candy in and they enjoyed waving at the cars and trucks as they passed by. Having gone to the Rose Bowl Parade earlier this year, I can say that the St. George parade was pathetic. The boys didn't care though, and they got some good loot out of the deal, so they were happy!

Camden was there too.

After the parade we went home and the boys played while Camden took a nap. When Camden woke up we had some lunch.

After everyone had eaten, we decided to take the boat out to Sand Hollow Reservoir. I have to admit I wasn't sure that boating on the Fourth of July in St. George would be such a great idea (read:crowds!), but we found a stretch of open shoreline and it was just lovely. Pam and Doug have a canopy that we set up with some beach chairs and sand toys. They also have a big tube that the kids were dying to ride. Camden and I played on the sand- digging and destroying to our hearts content- while the bigger boys went out on the boat with Pops and tried out the tube. Zach rode with them and he said that before they started going Ryan was the one saying he wanted to go fast, but once the boat started he got quiet and Brady was the one cheering Pops to go faster.

I was positive I left my phone in the car and it was quite a walk to go back to the van and get it. The whole time I was debating in my mind if I should run back and get it. I finally decided to go get it and made the trek back to the car only to discover I had my van keys and not the keys to Zach's parents' van. Grrr. So I made peace with the fact that the afternoon would go un-photographed (even though there were great pictures to be had at every turn). As we were loading up the car about to go home I reached in the towel bag and what did I find? My phone! Ah! I was so frustrated. I did turn and take this one picture so I would have something to help me remember the fun afternoon we had.

Brady and Camden both skipped afternoon naps to play at the beach with us so, as you can imagine, they crashed when they got home. Brady didn't even make it into his bed and just slept on the couch.

It ended up being a good thing that Brady got such a late afternoon nap because we headed out to watch fireworks at 9:30pm. (Pam was Super Grammy once again and stayed with the sleeping babies!) We found a great spot where Kristen and Jason had watched them last year. It was at one of the lower parking lots by Pioneer Park. We parked our car and walked up to the parking lot since they had the road blocked. We set up our chairs and got ready to play with Pops' LED helicopters that he bought just for the occasion. As we were getting settled, a cop car came pulling into the parking lot. We were the only ones around. He asked if we were planning on staying at the parking lot. We said we were and he said that was okay but not to go any further up the road. I guess they were setting the fireworks off up closer to Pioneer Park and that area was restricted. He said we could stay where we were but not to tell anyone he said it was okay.

The boys played with the LED 'copters until the fireworks started. As the show began, another cop car pulled into the parking lot behind us. At this point there were a few other people with chairs set up around us. An older policeman got out of the car and questioned why we were in a restricted area. Suddenly everyone was tripping over their words telling about how another cop said they could be there and that they were allowed to stay where they were. The older cop asked what the other cop looked like and I couldn't believe it when they all gave him a description of the guy. They might as well have drawn a sketch! I was shocked how terrible they all were at keeping confidences! I believe the first cops last words to us were, "You can stay here, but don't tell anyone I told you." And then at the first sign of controversy they all gave him up! Haha. It was ridiculous! In the end, we got to stay where we were and we enjoyed the rest of the show. (I just hope that first nice cop didn't get in trouble on our behalf!)

The kids all were worn out when we got home so bedtime was a breeze. I was pretty tired myself so I stayed up for a little while, but ended up being the first adult to go to bed. All in all it was a great 4th of July! I already can't wait for next year!