Happy 4th of July 2014!

The 4th of July is definitely in the running for my favorite holiday.  It is packed full of festivities and a lot of fun patriotic things.  I loved getting up early to see the hot air balloons, watching the Provo parade, heading up the canyon for a family reunion, golfing at Hobble Creek, and then finishing with the fireworks that night.  We did it all this year again with our own kids!  I loved it!

We DID get up early, but apparently not early enough before all the hot air balloons had taken off.  We got there to see them rising in the sky though.  Ross and Rubes were QUITE fascinated.  We all wore our red, white and blue....with the exception that Steve had to change his random green shirt he put on for the day. :)

We just missed them taking off!

Ross and Rubes are totally captivated!

My cute pigtailed girl in her adorable 4th of July outfit thanks to Grammy Joanne!

Balloons!

Cheese!

Dain and Rach ;)

Daddy leaning back so they can see the balloons better ;)  Getting a little choked as they go.

The parade was really fun.  We had both Steve's family and my family there.  We had a prime spot in the shade so we didn't even get hot until about 5 minutes before it ended. SCORE. :)
 

The clan!

Enjoying some extra shades :)

Yes - Ruby's gotten leashed...and she hates it...but not as much as I hate her running away no matter what I do!

Afterwards we headed back home for the kids to enjoy a little pool time with their cousin Alex and naps while Steve and I went up the canyon for the Paxton/Rasmussen family reunion to visit and eat lunch and then golfed in the Staheli Family Tournament.  My brother, Garrett, organized it and we all had a fun time.  I pretty much only golf once a year and that it when it happens.  I actually did OKAY this time which is good for me. :)

Pool Time!

This girl LOVES to swing.  She's always asking, "wh-ing! ow-died!  wh-ing!"

LOVE this face :)

Reunion time!

The golf group - we're serious, people!

The "other" team

The Staheli Purebloods ;)

So my ball came over here next to these cute little ducklings :)

A bunch of crazy golf cart runaways!

That night we BBQed some delicious steaks and had corn on the cob outside on my parents' patio and then headed to watch the fireworks which were INCREDIBLE.  A little too incredible.  They set of car alarms with how big the booms were from the explosions.  Ross wasn't a big fan of them being so big so he stayed inside the car with grandpa.  Ruby had fun walking around with Grandpa for part of it too and calling all the fireworks, "Pretty!"
 

Ross directing his uncles on how to play on the trampoline.

This girl LOVES corn on the cob!

Ross not so sure about the fireworks

Apart from being extremely tired this girl quite loved the fireworks :)

The night before Ross's Uncle Nathan had bought some fireworks to set off at home which he loved.  He kept saying, "Let's do a ludder one Uncle Nathan!" everytime one would finish. :)

A VERY fun holiday!  Happy Fourth of July!