4th of July 2019

Happy Independence Day  Here is my favorite picture from today.

Natalie was holding Peter and he was trying to grab the flag but couldn't do it.

So Natalie helped him out and that one got a good wave of the stars and stripes. A good enough picture and appropriate enough to put on Instagram. I don't post there a lot, but there ya go, Happy 4th! We woke up early to go to the community fun run. Always a shame to wake a sleeping baby...

Hyrum hurt his back at Youth Conference, so he didn't want to run, so he carried Peter while I chased after and then encouraged the kids. I told Hyrum he didn't have to walk the whole thing holding Peter, he should take a short cut. He opted to take the sidelines after walking down the street, and then after a break he walked back to the start/finish line.

I helped Sophi this year, she did great. (We took a short cut though, so we didn't do the whole thing, shhh)

Abi ran with Diego and his kids. They wondered how Sophi and I had gotten ahead of them! But they quickly passed us up and hurried ahead.

Wesley pushed Daniel in the "not a jogging" stroller. He did the whole thing and got a good workout!

Lily nice and red in the face.

Iveth ran with Owen, so nice.

Group Pic at the finish line!

I can't remember why Mel and Natalie were so far behind, but Natalie was ticked cause she was tired so she didn't want to finish, so Mel made her, which Natalie didn't appreciate.

Peter is proud of Ethan and that he came this year... 

Giving him a big wet slobbery kiss to congratulate him on the good job he did.

Mel brought stuff for face painting again.

Lily helped.

Mel made a little card with different options for the children to choose.

Daniel got a flag on his face!

Enjoying the pancake breakfast.

Hyrum and I both passed again.

I don't know if Hyrum had already eaten or not, but I got my fill at home with some of the amazing July peaches at Costco - in July they are sooooooo juicy and delicious! So I was good and full and was able to keep an eye on kids running around. Lily and Wes got a little creative with the paint. Hyrum put a Batman and Robin thing on Wesley's calves, funny.

Wesley played To the Colors again, like last year. Lily and Wesley got a little creative with the paint - Lily is Avatar.

Then I made Wes stage a pose for the camera since I didn't get a good pic of him as he was playing.

There was a long line for breakfast. We killed time waiting for the parade to start.

Sophi's face painting

Abi brought patriotic fingernail polish and had her own little station for customers.

Daniel's siblings got a little too creative with him as their canvas.

He was having a good time until he tripped and fell and scraped his elbow.

Hyrum took Daniel home for me, Iveth and Diego agreed to keep and eye on the kids.

Have fun at the parade!

I saw a little bit as I left. I thought the Ghostbusters part was fun.

Daniel at home was mad at the world for the pain it had caused him.

I tripped on a bad part of the sidewalk during the fun run, so I showed him that I understood as I pointed out my scraped knee. He didn't care about my owie, all he knew was that he was in pain.

Later tonight, I took kids to the Holladay fireworks with Iveth and Diego. 

Natalie's pretty butterfly face -

They closed the playground an hour before the fireworks started, and that made Daniel mad. He kept trying to escape to run back there.

I agreed to follow him while Hyrum watched Peter (so nice to have big kids helping)

I just let Daniel wander and eventually he agreed to come to me and we went back to our blanket, where Maria comforted him.

Mel went and got grapes and food at Harmons, including a coconut Pie, which she fed to herself and Daniel by using her paintbrushes for chopsticks.

It rained earlier in the day today, and the clouds were looming and it looked like the fireworks everyone tonight could be rained out, but it was good. And the grass wasn't even that wet either. We made a master plan for our departure so that we wouldn't be stuck in the parking lot for 45 minutes trying to get out. Our plan worked perfectly!! We came in 3 cars - our van, Iveth and Diego's van, and Corey's car (he stayed home to work). Plan was: as soon as the fireworks finished... for Mel, Diego, and Me, to grab Owen, Daniel, and Peter and run to the cars. Iveth, the big kid helpers, (Hyrum, Wesley, Abi) and the other kids were to gather the stroller, the blankets, and everything else, and start to walk toward the cars, and we would be in the cars and on our way out of the traffic jammed parking lot and they'd be able to hurry and jump in and we'd go. It worked great! The only bad part was us being in the way of traffic briefly as we put the stroller in the back. But it was great, much better than our departures in years past.

We made a good team! It was a nice day