Perfect 4th of July!

Since the 4th has fallen on a Sunday this year, we have the opportunity to celebrate all weekend long! At first, we thought our plans at having a good 4th was going to be ruined by yet another ear infection Zoey has (her 8th this year!) after a trip to the Doctor's office (and hopefully her last round of antibiotics for a while) she is scheduled to get tubes put in her ears in a couple of weeks (finally!) We think this will make all of our lives a little more pleasant.

On Friday night, Brian and I kicked off the weekend with a date up to Sundance to hear the Utah Symphony play a patriotic service in the mountain outdoor amphitheater. It was really nice. At the very end, they played the theme songs from every branch in the armed forces (military, navy, marines, coast guard, etc) and had those who had and currently serving stand while their theme song was played. The whole audience clapped and cheered for them and it gave me goosebumps of appreciation of how many people have served our country. A great way to start the patriotic weekend.

Saturday morning, we took the kids to see the annual air balloon show. It was really gusty, so only three of the 25 balloons actually made it in the air, but the kids thought it was cool just the same. They always have firetrucks, ambulances, police cars, and the life-flight helicopter on show which the kids really love to look at.
After the balloons and breakfast, we spent some time in the garden. As the saying goes for corn, "knee high by the 4th of July" and so we took a picture to show our gardens progress. Although off to a slow start, it really has had time to catch up with the current weather we've been having. The corn is doing amazingly well. We have planted cantaloupe, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, peas, green beans, several types of lettuce, corn, cilantro, basil, oregano, and chives. Our neighbors have tomatoes and peppers that they share with us. We are excited to start harvesting, we've already seen little zucchinis start!

After lunch and naps, we headed to the city pool, where we had a blast of a time! Jackson and Zoey have just finished their first round of swim lessons and are doing really well. Jackson is a fish in the water. He was swimming with so much energy and gusto (and he probably swallowed more water than his tummy could hold) that when we forced him to stop and take a break, he threw up a little. Not enough to stop him! He kept going and going!

We had soft serve ice cream cones for a snack. Zoey only likes the ice-cream part and had a hard time trying to get the "goodness" out of the cone. I love her little cheeks!

I love my little family! I can't believe how fast we are growing.


After the pool, we had a family BBQ. It was the perfect way to top off the day. The kids were starving after all their swimming and we had a lot of good food. I could only squeeze in 1/2 a hamburger to make room for all the other goodness!
We purchased a few fireworks for Jackson which he enjoyed. It is so fun to celebrate the holidays with kids, they make it exciting. Hopefully we'll get a chance to take naps today and recover! And since tomorrow is the officially "observed 4th of July" I'm sure we'll do it all again!

oh, and BTW. We got a minivan! and I love it.