Independence Day

I don't know if you're aware, but yesterday was July 4th. It's sort of a big deal in this Provo of mine, and I love it. This year's celebrations were more extravagant for me than almost any other year, but unfortunately my camera was low on battery all day. So we'll just pretend it's like a story book with pictures on the side, rather than pictures with narration on the side like I usually do. It'll be fun. 


On July 3rd, Mom came home from a week-long trip to Mississippi around 11 PM, which meant our family celebrations would likely not include anything early in the morning. And 'round these parts, the best things are in the morning (balloon festival, parade, a lack of extreme heat, etc.). So to remedy that, I moseyed down to the parade route in Provo to stake out a parade spot overnight with friends. (Ok really they did the staking and I showed up a little later, so thanks friends.) The night before the parade is craziness down there: few people actually sleep, cops are everywhere, and it's just bright and noisy all night long. I'd venture to say it's the rowdiest night of the year. Anyway, I took Mariah along, and we arrived around 2:30 AM. We chatted for a bit, slept for a smaller bit, and by then it was beginning to get light, which meant it was time for.....

THE BALLOONS. Seriously, this is the best part of Provo's festivities. And this was the first year I was awake enough to take it all in! Definitely a plus. It's so fun to walk around in all that color and listen to patriotic music and see the sunrise over the mountains and heavens!--it's just a good time all around. You should all go next year. Call me and I'll go with you.

We went back to the parade route spot and ate some food and played some Nertz:

And then we watched the parade. [Insert lots of pictures of floats and smiling people and marching bands here.] I love the parade, but not as much as the balloons. But I still love the parade. My high school's marching band is always the smallest, so that's...endearing. But my current school's football team is always a huge hit! And the missionaries are in the parade, which we love, and the flyover totally rocks. And those were my favorite parade things. 

After the parade, we sat at Jenna's house for a little bit before meeting up with the rest of the fam at Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. I got an amazing omelette with a lemon muffin, of which I have no pictures. But I do have this cute picture of Mom and Dad being patriotic in their attire:

And then we went shopping. But I don't remember anything from that part of the day because I was completely wiped out and kind of just walking around with my eyes closed. Not a joke. I did that in public. With really greasy hair that I kept telling myself looked just fine. (It didn't look fine.)

Then we went home and I slept through a hot shower and took a long nap. Then I woke up. Then I took another nap. Then I woke up all disoriented and a little grumpy because I just don't do well with waking up from naps. Lesson to be learned: get lots of sleep the night before you go to sleep on the parade route, because otherwise part of your July 4th will be lost forever to what feels like a drug-induced coma. 

We wrapped up the day with some fireworks in PG. My family tries to avoid traffic at events like this, so we have a cul-de-sac a little ways away from the actual event where we set up camp every year. We don't know any of the people who live in this cul-de-sac, so I always feel a little weird when we show up and they're all playing on their lawns and having family time, and then we put some chairs in their road and have a seat... I'm sure it's fine. But the fireworks were lovely this year, and did anyone else think they seemed to have like 3 false endings?? My favorites are those small ones that are super loud, and any that look like they're raining stars. You know the ones? Oh good. My camera was crying by this point, so I only have one picture of any fireworks at all:

In conclusion, I'd say this will be a tough year to beat. Happy birthday America; thanks for inviting me to the party.