4th of July

The 4th of July is my least favorite holiday ever. Ok - so the holiday itself is not terrible. It is the dangerous (illegal) fireworks display that my husband puts on every year that scares me. I'm not even against fireworks. I love watching the big show in Idaho Falls and even enjoy the sound, smell and sight of the fireworks. What goes on at my house is anything but safe, (with a 7 year old carrying around a blow torch to light his bottle rockets) and did I mention illegal? Three different years we have had the police show up to confiscate LeRoy's stash. Not my idea of fun.

This year however, was a great 4th! Probably because I spent the day the way I wanted to and by the time I got home the fireworks were all done. I had a great time in Arimo with Mom, Dad, John, Jared, Joe's family, Jim, Kellie and Shawn. It was fun to eat at the park for lunch and see so many Arimo people that I loved, admired and knew as I grew up. Everyone just looked . . . older.

Half of us. Mom noticed: 2 oldest, 2 middle and 2 youngest

The parade was short and sweet. I think it only lasted about 10 minutes and of course there was candy, plenty of candy. This is the only shot I got of the parade, which makes sense since Jim and John were the only people in the parade that I really knew.

After lunch the boys got together to play baseball and the rest of us sat at the park and chatted. It was so relaxing. No phone, no entertaining to do, just fun visiting. It was great to watch all the cousins play together.

Grandpa and Grandma with all the visiting grandkids.

Then there was fishing with Grandpa. It was kinda supposed to be Shawn and Dad's thing but they took some of the kids with them. (This was right around the same time that LeRoy, Erika, Derek and Justin went home for their own fireworks.) What a fun Grandpa to take them all fishing. Levi didn't really care about the fishing as much as paddling the canoe.

Dad looks funny in this shot because he was leaning forward using his knees to push the canoe on shore. He isn't really a hunchback ogre.

Levi and I drove home that night and we were caught in traffic for about an hour from Idaho Falls to Rexburg because of construction and the traffic from the major firework show in Idaho Falls. When we got home we discovered that we moved into the perfect neighborhood for LeRoy. He was outdone. Had a small firework show compared to 2 of our neighbors. Not good for me, they are all combining and planning next years 4th of July. Hmmm. . . . maybe Arimo should be my 4th of July hangout every year.