Isn’t the Fourth of July the best? It’s probably my favorite
holiday because it means outside family fun. Yay!
This year, we kicked off our holiday with the Chuckars game.
We love our hometown minor league baseball team. The Chuckars won which made it
even better! At the end of the game, the announcers invited all the kids down
to run the bases. The little ones flocked to the field.
Izzy was in a skirt and flip-flops and, yet, easily ran
around a few times.
Cam Cam spent her time on the field dancing on the pitcher’s
mound.
When I asked her why she didn’t run, she looked at me with
her big brown eyes and said, “We were supposed to run?” When I pointed out what
the other hundred kids had been doing, she said, “But there was a big dancing
stage in the middle.”
I LOVE this sweet spirit who does her own thing. She is a
blessing of the highest degree. I also LOVE her sister who never shies away
from hard things. What would I do without these two?
The BEST part of the weekend was when my man came home. Since
he is currently working in Rock
Springs , Wy., he was able to spend the holiday with us
even though it wasn’t his typical week home. So wonderful!
On the Fourth, we rolled out of bed and headed to the
parade. I have a system for the parade and all activities in general. I arrive
at the last possible second and pray everything works out. It typically does! You
have to perfect the look to make it work. It’s a combination of smiling with
desperate eyes. People in this wonderful town respond very well to this kind of
desperation.
This year, we headed to prime-parade watching territory five
minutes before the first float went by. Since we looked sweet and hopeless,
this kind woman shared her bench with us and got our kids a blanket to sit on.
All of this occurred under a perfect shade tree. There was no camping out for
several hours or vandalizing someone’s lawn in the name of reserving a spot. It
was kismet, I tell you.
After that, we went to visit Chase’s second mom and we had a
nice chat with her. My man doesn’t have a lot of childhood pictures of himself
and she gave us a whole stack. He’s told me a million times about a particular
Halloween where he dressed up as Homer Simpson and she had a picture of it! We
are so blessed.
When the day was winding down, Chase pulled out the grill
and went to work preparing dinner. He put together a variety of steak and
seafood. I am so spoiled. All of the cooking went on while I was sleeping.
Since almost 100,000 people head to our local fireworks
display, you can imagine the number of vehicles that goes along with it. For a
town such as ours, it’s not typically set up for this kind of traffic. So Chase
and I decided instead of messing around with our car and parking, we would just
walk to the show.
I just googled it. It’s about 2 miles away from our home. The walk there? Not so bad. We made good time and created fun memories. The walk home at 11 p.m. with two tired kids? Not so fun.
For the grand finale to our holiday weekend, Chase took me
to see Martina McBride! The concert was a present for my 30th birthday
(which was a painful age to turn by the way). We were so excited and ended up
having a wonderful time. Chase isn’t really into country music but he was such
a good sport, I was very touched. The girls were supposed to go camping with my
dad but I cancelled on him last minute and he left town without them. Then my
other plans fell through and my kids were sad about missing out on their
camping trip. So my Grandma saved the day and let the kiddos “camp” at her
house.
It’s all down hill from here, baby.
In the end, we had a wonderful time. It was our first date
since Chase left for Russia
last October and while it became stressful for a time, it was well worth it.
All in all, this was the best holiday we've had this year! I think everyone would agree, except for our dog Hay Hay. The fireworks made her so jumpy that every time I stopped moving, she pushed her way between my legs. We own the most high-maintenance dog ever.
