4TH OF JULY!!!

There is nothing like the 4th of July in Manti. I have been to a few other cities celebrations but none of them compare to the one in Manti. We started off the holiday with a parade down Manti main street on Thursday night. The 4th seems to be packed with way to much entertainment to fit a parade in too. We use to have our normal family spot on main street until Angie and Fred bought the Bright Spot so now we always know we will have GREAT seats, good food, drinks and ice cream if we want it during the parade.

The 4th starts off with a breakfast at the park and the fun doesn't end until 11:00 that night after the awesome firework show. We headed to the park about 10:30 and watched the little kids fashion show. I thought that the boys would be so excited to participate in all of the races but the only thing that they could focus on was the dunking tank. Fred was scheduled to be on the tank at 12:30 so the boys could hardly wait for that. I was told that we probably funded half of the new fire station with the amount of balls my kids threw. They really weren't to worried about who was on it, they just wanted to dunk them. They both did pretty well and we all were very successful in dunking Fred at least once.

The boys both ran in the races and did very well. Derek let up at the end so he wouldn't take out anyone on the other side of the finish line but Wesley ran straight through. Wesley received a free pass to the swimming pool and a free ice cream cone. They also participated in the egg toss. I think that they entered as many as they would keep giving eggs for (i.e. father/son, grandparent/child, girl/girl) they didn't seem to mind but had fun doing it. Derek also participated in the arm wrestle. I missed it but he won the 1st round and lost the 2nd.

There was such a great turn out this year and I am sure it had to do with the long weekend. I ran into so many people that I haven't seen in a long time. I ran into an old friend Andria Boston McCaul and she said "I have been blog stocking you" LOL!!! It is amazing how much the blogging world has changed our lives for the better. We had a good laugh and it was so much fun to check out her blog when I got back to my parents house. I also saw my good friend from high school Molly and her little boy Tyson and fiance' Ameen. Molly and Ameen are getting married on Aug.1st. They are such a cute couple and I am so happy for her. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

After the festivities at the park the boys wanted to go to the high school and watch the homerun derby. They tried to be patient for all of the big guys to finish so that they could at least hit a few balls. Thanks to their Uncle Fred who is so good to them he pitched them each a few balls.

Thank goodness my parents live across the street from the park. It makes it nice and we were able to have a nice feast once again during the festivities. When Fred is around there is always plenty of food to eat. He always fixes enough food to feed our entire family even when only a couple of use are here. It was nice to be across the street from the park too for Angie. Just having Max a week ago she wasn't sure how much she would be able to get to the park. She was able to leave Max a couple of times with my mom so that she could come over and be with her kids and watch her husband go down.

After the festivities at the park and the homerun derby were over Dave & Cari Steven's rented the pool for a little while and invited the boys to go down with Mac and Fred and the kids to come down too. All of the guys/boys played a basketball game in the pool that was more like a football game in the water with a basketball. Fred got 2 nice shiners on his forehead and Dave Stevens ended up ripping his big toe nail off. I guess that is what happens when "older" men try to be young again. ;) The teams were split into furs & skins, furs being those men with fur coates on during the summer. :) I just sat on the side to help watch Sisi and Tyler.

After swimming it was time to get ready for fireworks. Fred bought a HUGE box of fireworks that kept the kids pretty busy until Manti's fireworks started. Fred divided up all of the fireworks between him and the kids and away they went. It was pretty fun!!! Sisi and I took a ride down by the fairgrounds to get a closer look at Manti's fireworks. It was pretty cool because we were able to tune to the local radio station and listen to patriotic music as the fireworks went off. I think that music with fireworks makes them even better. I do love the Stadium of Fire but I guess since we couldn't go to that the Manti City 4th of July was the next best thing.

We ended the night with Mac Stevens having a sleep over on the trampoline with Wesley & Derek. They had fun on the monkey bars before heading off to sleep. On Saturday the boys went over to some other friends and ended up going out to Gunnison Resevoir to go tubing. They had a great time!!! I took a ride out there on the 4 wheeler and was able to catch a few shots of them. We had a great weekend!!! I left the boys in Manti for a few more days. Wesley won a free swimming pass for winning his race and they have so much more fun in Manti. They really have a great time down there and I never really have to worry about them. I am so lucky to have my mom home during the summer so that the boys are able to spend some time down there. Thanks mom for letting them stay and keeping an eye out for them.