I LOVE this country. I LOVE this time to reflect on and celebrate our freedom. I LOVE the time that we took to teach our kids about our founding fathers this week and how our country came to have these liberties. I LOVE that I get to live here with MY family!
We started our long all-american weekend off just right by picking up a redneck canoe from an awesome guy living at a trailer park. We strapped it to our minivan and headed for home. Can't get more American than that. As we were pulling up to our home the neighborhood fireworks were just starting. The boys were ecstatic to be up way, way past their bedtimes. Not only that, but they got to run around outside with all the neighbor kids. Being in heaven is an understatement. Oh, and there were tons of treats. And fireworks.
The morning of the 4th we headed to our small town parade.
*side note*
People are kind of crazy and will have their spots reserved at midnight the night before. Most spots are taken 24 hours before the parade even starts...crazy.
Lucky for us we have some awesome crazy friends who let us come sit with them.
I admire that family so much.
There was so much candy being thrown out. Corbin even hooked me up with a wrapped cinnamon bear. We also got lots of bead necklaces, a frisbee, and two coupons for free ties...score!
This was one of Taylor's favorite floats. He loved all those flags. (not so much the concrete truck)
Afterwards we headed up to Logan Canyon for an escape up to the mountains. It was so pleasant up there and our boys had their own nature playground. This log was in our campsite, they used it as a horse.
Our little scout Corbin got our campfire ready by building a teepee in the fire pit.
That boy is growing up fast right before my eyes. He has been attached to his dad lately. Whatever Justin does, Corbin does. I hope he continues down that path because he couldn't pick a better man to follow.
As usual I wish I would've taken way more pictures. Justin has a habit of never taking pictures because he loves to live in the moment and not have to stop and take a picture. I sometimes get that way, which is great, I want to enjoy the moment and just live it up and saver it. But there is nothing like sitting back and looking at years and years of memories that we took the time to take pictures of. I have a new excitement for taking more pictures again...
We also headed up to Bear Lake, which unfortunately didn't last long. It was raining as we were driving up, but as we pulled up the rain stopped and there was a break in the dark clouds. The sun came out and we were able to enjoy playing on the lake for those 30 beautiful minutes. We call it our Bear Lake Miracle. We soaked it up and then packed up and left just as the rain starting coming again. It was kind of disappointing, but we still loved being there.
The next day we headed to a lake close to home and enjoyed taking the canoe out there. All five of us climbed in and Justin and I rowed us around to look at the beautiful scenery. Corbin was standing and looking down at the water, Justin saw his opportunity. He thought he would tilt the canoe really quickly so that Corbin would fall in (Corbin does like to get in, just so you know). I felt the movement and kind of panicked and I leaned the exact same way. Yep, the boat capsized. After the initial shock we were all laughing hysterically. (yes, we always wear life jackets). We swam to shore with our canoe dumped the water out and got back in.
A great memory was made.
Man, I wish I had a picture...luckily I did not have the camera with me.
