July Fourth & Colonial Festival

Freedom Festival Parade 

 

Brent got up insanely early (like 3 AM) to reserve a spot for the Freedom Festival Parade right when they became available.  This time we watched it from the south side of Center Street and brought our pop-up shade instead of trying to get a shady spot under the trees.  There was a great view and plenty of room for everyone.  I came down with the kids in time for the parade to start and brought donuts to share.

 

Sam and Josh (wearing a firehat that was passed out at the parade)

 

Ashlyn and Elizabeth

 

Emma and Rachel (she's plugging her ears for something loud like sirens or cannon fire)

The group: Brent, my parents, Jenny & Bill and kids, and our family.  Chris and Natalie were already in the parade with the Maple Mountain High band Chris directs.

After the parade, Brent was hot and tired from getting up so early.  He took the older kids home, while I took Rachel and Joshua to check out the Colonial Fair at Scera Park.  I'd heard about it before and wanted to go see what it was like, and this year they had it at a great park with lots of shade and space.

 

Rachel in a bit of a bind

 

 

 

Indian exhibit

 

There was TONS of interactive and fun things for the kids to try out and on, such as colonial armor.  Apparently the early settlers had to put on armor just to leave the forts a short distance.  Joshua was just happy that he discovered something on wheels :0)

 

A couple days later, I convinced Brent how awesome the Colonial Festival was and since it was still running, we decided to take our whole family down to check it out.

The kids experiencing what it was like to haul buckets of water over their shoulders:

 

 

Joshua trying out washing clothes in a wooden tub

 

 

 

They had some really fun colonial outfits for anyone to dress up in.  Emma and Rachel were so cute in theirs.

 

Elizabeth didn't want to try on the bonnet, but looked cute anyway.

 

 

Rachel trying out the armor again

 

Brent really got a kick out being tough.  Especially with a huge sword!

 

 

Back to the Fourth of July....

That evening after cooling off and resting, we had my family over for a BBQ and fireworks.  We inflated the pool for the kids, and they all had fun on the trampoline.  We had a feast of summery BBQ food for dinner and thoroughly enjoyed socializing.  The crazy thing was that our city officially banned ALL fireworks within city limits two days before the Fourth, threatening a $1000 fine for noncompliance.  By that time, we had already bought all of our fireworks, so we felt pretty bummed.  So as it got dark, we packed up our supply of fireworks and drove a few blocks south to a park in AF where we fired them all off.  It turned out to be really awesome, because some other families were firing aerials in the park and we had the perfect view of them all.  It was a great fourth!

 

 

Joshua is filling up a water squirter

 

 

Emily Jo, Jessica, Rachel, Gracie

 

 

 

Emma

 

 

 

Jenny & Ana

 

 

 

In the middle of it all, I caught Sam and Josh reading books together on Joshua's bed and had to take a picture.  Those two are inseparable!  I LOVE that we live so close to Jenny & Bill's family so our kids can see each other lots.

 

 

 

Melvin is such a ham for the camera.