Small town celebrations are so much fun! We started off this year with the kids parade. Jonathon took Laurel and Linden. Olive was there also but Cedar, after going to the line up decided he was too old. Next came the parade. Parades in small towns are not measured by the amazing-ness of the floats, bands or drill teams but by the willingness and amount of candy that is thrown out. This year the parade was pretty good!
Laurel was so cute! She had a sucker in each hand and she would find a piece of candy, yell out, "can-ee!" Go pick it up! Walk back to Jonathon who had her little bag then reach up for my hand to go get more! Linden quickly learned that if you wave at the people in the parade they throw you more candy . (Especially if you are a cute little kid!) he would run out to pick up the haul and drop some in Laurels bag. At one point he declared he had enough candy and went and sat down. After 90 seconds though he was back up. Cedar and Olive came with back packs for candy bags and by the time we were done they had them filled with candy and a full size bag of chips each!
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After the parade we went home for lunch and naps. Thankfully Linden took a nice long nap, enabling him to stay up for the fire works! Cedar and Olive headed off to the park where all of the vendors and performances were. They met up with Cedars friend Cory and his little brother. They also found an unused fire work which led them back to our house to set it off. (It was a dud...) thankfully they had a few others saved that they let off. That then inspired them to head back to the fireworks booth and park. So off they went. (It was a great day to live in a small town! The freedom to wander can't be beat in a town of 2000!) I think I saw Cedar, Olive an their little group one more time at my house before they were off again to the park. I had to run some errands and found them on the side of the road. Cory's mom pulled up behind me and the boys decided to head up the mountain to his house.
After making sure Cedar wasn't intruding I invited them to watch the fire works in our back yard and told her to sen the boys back to my house when they got tired of them there.
Olive came home with me and we had a nice time watching some old you tube videos. Jonathon headed out to work on the Coopsicle, Aspen started making cookies and I started to think about packing.
Soon Olive and Aspen headed over to the ball fields to sell ice cream bars. They ended up making $26.50 to donate to uncle Branch who is heading out to Micronesia in a few weeks to teach doctors there how to make and fit PVC prosthetic legs!
Cedar had come back by now and they decided to eat with Cory's family. Before they headed up the mountain they were requited to pick up all of the flags that one of the Boy Scout groups put up.
I grilled some Chicken and during dinner Olive got a call from a friend to come play. This was exactly hat she had been hoping for and soon after dinner she was off.
Jonathon went back to the coopsicle, Aspen went off to her books, Linden played with the neighbor kids, Laurel went to bed and I packed.
Soon it was too dark to work or play outside and Linden was ready for the fireworks! We watched the neighbors light some and then we headed to the back yard where we can see the fire department light them over at the track.
We set out our chairs and wrapped Linden in a blanket. Aspen set up the hammock and soon we hear Cedar coming in the back yard announcing he brought 30 kids with him! He wasn't exaggerating! Cory's mom had had some HS friends get together. They were going to head to the ball fields to watch fireworks, then considered the 30 kids thy had between them and decided a fenced yard would be nice to keep track of everyone in the dark! She remembered my invitation and came!
We were glad they did! We have probably the BEST place in tow for watching the fireworks. And Aspen was in her element with all of the little kids. The fireworks started and the bigger boys went to the football field. But when the fireworks didn't make it very high in the sky and kept hitting the ground we called them back. For a small town the fireworks were great. We all kept expecting a fire from the low fireworks, one even went of on the ground! But although I don't know if anyone got singed, there wasn't a fire!
As our friends were leaving, the neighborhood fireworks got interesting! We all watched from the front yard for another 20 minutes as fireworks were set off in the street and the occasional car would try to maneuver around the fountains of flaming light. Our friends were finally able to find a lull in the action long enough to round up their kids and we got Linden inside and ready for bed. Another 15 minutes later and we could pull the big kids in. Prayers were said and as the kids fell into bed they thanked Heavenly Father for the best 24th of July ever!
1 comment:
So fun! I miss the small town feel. Lehi used to be just like that, in spite of being in the middle of the Wasatch Front. It's good to know there are still places where children can wander the streets freely and just be kids. I have to agree that it sounds like a perfect day!
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