Independence Fever, Part Three

The weather was beautiful, the company even better- this was the first 4th of July I have spent with my family (mom, sisters, etc) since 2008, so it was a joy to hang out with them and experience small town 4ths (yes, plural....one celebration was not enough)!

DAY SEVEN: Hike into nowhere & a Heber 4th


Ready to celebrate a fantastic weekend!


We went off on a walk, which turned into a hike, which turned into a hike to nowhere that ended up above the highway, then down to the highway: cacti, big dogs, walking sticks, creeks and a shower in the middle of nowhere. Literally, a shower.....it was kind of creepy.


We went to the 4th of July celebration in Heber- navajo tacos, old-fashioned soda, bouncy houses, sunburns and fun.


G.G. and sweet Scarly Jo.


There were many many many many many many many hundreds upon thousands upon millions of these little beetles, flying, buzzing, flying, landing, buzzing, flying around. Imagine how calm me & my sisters & daughters were...except Scarlet, who fearlessly caught them.


Look how happy these girls are. G.G. is getting them a pony ride!




They were OVER the moon.

Me & my girls. They had so much fun and the fireworks were great.

DAY EIGHT: Church, Play-do Extravaganza, WINNING

Grammie and her eight grandbabies- this is the last time they will all be together for a while.

Church today with Grandma at Faith Lutheran. She loves showing off her greats (and they were all soooo good, even if Piper did try to sneak Communion).

#truth

Enjoying some outside bbq time, along with a "bider" that was blowing around on its "tring".

Who knew Play-do could entertain these kids for hours? This was in their "snowman phase".

Us adults finished off the night with my favorite game, Boggle. Check out my paper- we found one from 1995, so of course, I had to use it and, of course, I won (Grandma didn't even cheat this time).

DAY NINE: She's a Grand Old Flag and Show Low Amazes Us

We always start off our 4th with weird Play-do men......said no one ever.

Showing Avery the wonder of "Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute" and "Space Unicorn".

Up in Show Low- I love the quaint buildings.

Getting ready to ride the "choo choo crane"....the slowest in the land.

And they're OFF! (Tae was still sleeping.)

Getting ready for fireworks, more navajo tacos, funnel cakes, shaved ice and amazing glowing flashy wands and swords (with dino heads that roared CON.TIN.U.OUS.LY).

It's almost fireworks time!!

This is just an example of how we spent the last 15 minutes before fireworks began. All the children were amazed at the lights that you could shine on our faces. Nichole seems as charmed as I felt.

But seriously, the fireworks in Show Low were some of the best I've ever seen (minus the dynamite that went off one 4th up in Nampa, Idaho). They had great music playing along with it, the kids were entertained (I loved that Avery would yell out the colors...he's so stinkin' cute), it was LONG (at least 20-25 minutes) and the finale induced yelling and cheering from our blanket (mostly from me and mom and yes, I may have cried a little).

It was so much fun and I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to hang out with my family. Yah, yah....I'll give credit to Nichole for coming out over the 4th too. But that last night was bittersweet because it literally was the last night: Mom, Nichole & the boys were going to drive back down to the valley and me & the girls were going off on a mini-adventure before we left for home.

I'm glad I live within a day's driving distance of my mom, sisters (except Choly) and grandparents. It would be hard to be further away from them.

Anyhow, stay tuned for our mini-adventure. It was.....EPIC.