I know people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but I disagree. Christmas lights are nice and all but make no mistake, they are no substitute for warm weather and the 4th of July.

I have always began my 4th celebration at the Riverton Parade.
It’s the best parade in the state. We had a great time with our friends and cousins.

All the kids were so adorable in their 4th clothing, especially mine.







The kids caught oodles of candy and saw some pretty impressive floats and machinery go by.

The next day, we headed over to Riverton park for the town days carnival.

The kids always look forward to seeing the ponies.

Usually it’s so hot, our faces start to melt off by noon. This year however, it was so nice. In fact we were almost chilly when we first got there.

The kids rode rides, visited booths, and got prizes and treats. Alyssa got a tattoo from this great big biker dude.

I just love the contrast between him and her.

Sunny as always had the best time while on the swing.

She was a little but moody before, but swinging seemed to cure her grouchies.


After the carnival we headed to Arctic Circle for our annual 4th of July ice cream cone.


Sunny really loves to eat ice cream. Can you tell? Doesn't she look high on ice cream?

Alyssa loves it too, but takes teeny tiny bites. This girl and eating...So frustrating.

Then to my parents house for a BBQ with all my brothers and their kids.
We had a great time together hanging outside on my parents kick-awesome deck and back yard.




The kids had a complete hay day together.


My sister in law Leslie made this awesome flag cake.

In all its majesty, and it is totally awesome and a masterpeice, it still doesn’t hold a candle to my 17 layer Thanksgiving Jell-O. Nice try though.

Steve was so great to let me just have this day and relish in it. He is the love of my life folks...just in case you didn't already know that. I love him.

After the BBQ we headed back over to the park to watch the fireworks show. We found an awesome seat in an undisclosed location where we had a fabulous view of the fireworks and were able to escape the traffic most expeditiously.

Then the real 4th of July on Sunday. We dressed in our best

(the same clothes we wore all weekend) and headed to Church where I must say I was disappointed that we only sang one patriotic song in the entire block. With three or four opportunities to sing patriotic songs to only come up with one song and to have it not be the Star Spangled Banner...Come on Mormon folks…we can do better than that, especially since the 4th was actually on Sunday. When else will we be able to sing the Star Spangled Baner during the year. Never.

To top off the weekend, on Monday we took the girls to see the new Toy Story movie. I give it two thumbs up. It was really good. I won't lie I cried and cried. Both the girls really liked it. We don’t do movies very often, but when we do it’s fun.

After the movie and a nap we headed over to the east side for a BBQ with Steve’s fam. Unfortunatly we didn't take any photos, but it was really fun to see new Grandma and Grandpa who had been out of town for the rest of the weekend. New Grandma also made the flag cake, which was I must say...spendid.

It was a 4th celebration to remember. We got to do so many fun things and be with our favorite people and had such pleasant weather. Let’s all hope for a cool front next 4th.