You really can't beat the 4th of July! The celebrating of our freedom. The expressions of love and gratitude to those who have and still are fighting for our freedom. I am always overcome with emotions on this day and am so thankful to have been blessed to be raised in this wonderful, free country.
Chris and I hope to instill in Elanora a sense of humble pride and respect of America and the ideals we hold dear.
The 4th is definitely one of my favorite holidays for all of the above reasons. I also love the fact that you can be in almost any town no matter how obscure and still find a celebration. And lets be honest, you just can't beat fried food and fireworks :)
The little town we decided to celebrate in was my hometown of Layton (and for the record, when I say Layton, I pronounce the 'T', in case you were wondering).
We started out at 8:00 am with breakfast in the park. Although it was a little sad because half our usual party wasn't there. After breakfast, my dad has to sneak over to the baseball games with Elanora in hopes that she will one day play. He is doing a pretty good job because the only shirt she ever wants to wear is "Grandpa's baseball shirt".
Next came the parade. Definitely the highlight of Nory's day, well the candy part anyway. She shoved as much taffy in her mouth as she could possibly fit and because it was scorching hot, half of it melted all over her clothes and everything else she touched.
She had the set up! Her cold water bottle, taffy in the pocket of her little chair and awesome shades.
She chilled in her chair most the time. She did jump up and dance as the cheerleaders went by. I'm sure she would have jumped up when the horses went by but she had to make a pit stop at the potty.
We always have a huge group hanging out on the usual corner.
Elanora loves to be anywhere the cousins are!
She was one tired baby after the parade
Now the fireworks were a little more complicated then a dancing, music, candy filled Smorgasbord of a parade.
We thought a little preparation was in order. So the night before, we bought some fireworks to tryout. Begrudgingly, Chris got some at the store because I refused to let him use the ones hidden in the shoebox.
Nory had seen fireworks all over the sky but when we started a few in our driveway, she really wanted no part of it. That little Fire Cracker, after lighting only 2 said," Okay, let's go to bed now, I really want to go to bed." The rest of the night and the next morning she kept saying over and over, "Fireworks aren't scary, they are beautiful."
So when the cannons at Layton park went off, I was surprised she jumped and came over to me but wanted to get back down and play with the cousins. As soon as the first fireworks exploded in the sky she wanted nothing to do with them. She jumped in my arms and buried her face in my shoulder, digging into my neck every time one went off. She would jump back and forth from Chris to me, not quite knowing which was safer. The poor Lil' Sug' started crying (unfortunately, I forgot the camera to document).
The turning point was when her cute cousin Canyon brought her some popcorn. She wanted to eat it and she needed to turn around to eat it. So she ended the night warming up to the fireworks but I wouldn't say she enjoyed them. She did go and sit with grandma Page and we got this picture on the phone. She doesn't look too terrified, only nervously chewing her arm a little bit :)
As soon as the grand finale was over, that silly little baby jumped up, did a double fist pump in the air and screamed, "YAY, WE DID IT!"
The next day she did love holding sparklers at my brothers house. But when we started the fireworks she informed us that she would rather play with barbies inside the house.
That Little Fire Cracker is still telling us that fireworks aren't scary, they are beautiful. Let's hope next year she can believe that those affirmations are true.
