We wern't as "on top" of things this year. So our plans of getting up at 6 and and fighting the traffic to the park to see the balloons with Kate kinda fell through.
We were about 20 minutes late, which made a pretty big difference this year, because apparently all the balloons were on time.
I had to shake off my grumpy face and remind myself that the kids didn't know what they had missed out on. So I pretended to be super happy at the 3 balloons out of 20 that were still there when we arrived.
And it worked.
We even had one fly directly over us. It was perfectly quiet, but Alex had to react somehow to the giant pig threatening to crush us.
The upside of being late was that everyone was clearing out while we were arriving. So Tyler ran to get the car and re-park while we sat on the grass.
I really wanted a family picture.
But it's really hard to pull that off when there are only 3 of you,
and you are using the timer on the camera, and can't see what you are aiming at.
After the Balloon fest we got out of dodge.
Last year we had attempted the Provo Freedom Festival Parade. It was beyond overwhelming, SO many people were everywhere. And it was just marching bands and obscure people in fancy old cars. I was disappointed.
So this year we drove to the thriving metropolis of Moroni (pop 1,345)!
Tyler's Aunt and Uncle live nearby and had told us about the parade, and the ball drop. Just before the parade an airplane flew over and dropped pingpong balls on the road! You could redeem them later for prizes at the park.
Heidi was all about it,
but apparently Alex has an aversion to all thing large and low flying.
Annie babysat Great Grandma for us.
There ended up being a great Jacobson turnout and the girls got to enjoy the parade with their favorite people!
Let's pretend that the kids all have their hands over their hearts as they watch the flag approach. And that they arn't just eagerly awaiting the candy there were promised would be thrown to them.
At this parade, people threw out otter pops. Devin and I agreed this was the best idea ever.
We got to see all the city royalty, and jr. royalty for the entire county. In fact that may have made up the majority of the parade.
It was fun spending the day with family.
There was lots of love going around.
Heidi is about 3 or 4 months older than her second cousin Scout.
But she treats her like a baby. Going around bossing Scout to do this, or not to do that, and feeding her like she doesn't have hands. But cute Scout eats it up and totally lets her do it!
After the parade there was a big party at the baseball diamond. Blowup toys and carnival games. the kids loaded up on candy and prizes and the parents sought out elusive shade.
Heidi ran in the two year olds race. Grandma helped her start and Aunt Kate was waiting at the finish line cheering her on.
Once they shouted GO, all the kids started running like crazy!
And Heidi started taking the tiniest baby steps you have ever seen.
After ALL the other kids had past the finish line and it was just her, she sprinted to Kate- smiling like she had won a marathon. It was adorable.
Archie wasn't as reserved and tied for first with about 10 other kids.
After the parade, park, lunch and talking, we went to the fish hatchery!
It reminded me of my childhood.
We did get our family picture in for the day, I set up the camera and sprinted to get in my place. I can't believe everyone looks great! Unfortunately we chose to do it inside a fish hatchery, thus disqualifying it from selection for the Christmas card.
After waking up at 6 and running all over the state for 9 hours Heidi was still in good spirits.
We went home for some downtime before dinner and swimming at Ben and Kate's.
Pizza, then swimming then ice-cream and rain boots.
Tyler babysat sleeping Annie so the rest of us could walk off Apartment property to do fireworks.
When Alex was 2 there was no way I would ever let her touch a sparkler, or come near anyone who had a sparkler. I'm growing soft in my old age.
Ben put on a fantastic show, complete with smoke bombs and pop-its!
By 7pm we were all exhausted but wanted to see the Stadium of Fire show. We pushed the envelope until 10:30, and 5 minutes after everyone had given up and we were strapping screaming kids in the car, the show started. Everyone was cranky, so the magic was lost.
And about 4 seconds after we strapped the kids in the car they were gone. But even with the bumps it was one of the greatest 4th's ever!
The weekend before we wen't up to see my long lost brother and his family in Highland.
The girls were excited that we were going on an adventure and ran outside to play in the grass with their doll and horse toys.
They splashed in the little city pad and we ate chinese. That mountain behind Heidi went up in flames about 3 days later. It's been nothing but smoke and sirens for weeks it seems.
I swear Bridger is going to be running the next time I see him.
We had some good bonding time and I think I reaffirmed favorite Aunt status with the little boy. But as I'm one of his 2 Aunts, and the only one he has in the U.S.A. it's not going to be very hard to keep my title.
