Stars and Stripes

So I know that a lot of you are going to hate me for saying this but until our move to Centerville, the Fourth of July wasn't that big of a holiday for me.  WHAT?! I'm not un-patriotic or anything but I like all the glitz and glam of the holidays (example: if i had it my way AND had a gazillion dollars our house would blind you during Christmas) and at least growing up in Cache Valley the 4th of July was B-O-R-I-N-G.  There I said it.  The fireworks display wasn't that awe-inspiring to me after spending many Fourth of Julys at our family cabin in Wyoming where the fireworks are much bigger, brighter, dangerous and just plain AMAZING!  But now my  feelings have changed and I love and look forward to the Fourth because of the many and great things there are to do to celebrate our country's independence here in our place we call home.  The festivities begin with the Children's Parade which our kids love as you can see in the pictures below, I enjoyed this year more than last too because Sophie actually had an input of how we were going to decorate their "float" and both she and Jens helped- well... at least tried to help.

 At the end of the Parade all the participants get popsicles which is yet another incentive for us to do it. :)

 The parade ends at Founder's Park where the city has food booths, bouncy houses/toys galore, and entertainment (this year in the form of a sub-par magician/comedian and a local pop band) leading up to the fireworks display.

 note: please focus more on my cute kids and hottie husband and ignore the blemish face no-makeup me (didn't want to paint my face that day).

When the band started playing the kids wanted to go and dance but not without their mama so i got pulled up with them.  I was a little self-conscious at first (see the massive crowd?) but then some of our neighborhood friends- kids and THEIR mamas -came up to join us and we ended up having a blast!

 The next morning I got up early and ran the 5k with my friend Alice, I'm semi-retired from running because of the knee but this run has turned into a fun tradition for me to do.  This year Sophie asked if she could race so she ran too!  I managed to cut down my time from last year by 1 min to 26:30 thanks to my great running partner Alice who helped me run through a side-ache!  Sophie did great in her 1/4mile run, she got knocked over right at the starting line and at the turn around point but she was a trooper and got right back up and kept running both times! Way to go! The funniest is when Daddy went racing up the sidelines towards the finishline to cheer her to the end and thats when she started crying because she didn't want Daddy to run with her!  I had to jump in then and tell her to ignore daddy and ran with her to the finish.  We later explained to her what Daddy was actually doing and then she was happy with him again. :)  After our race we had breakfast in the park and then headed home for the Parade.

 Sophie and i with our race bibs and her ribbon (all the kids got a ribbon for finishing).

 The kids dressed in their cute holiday outfits waiting for the candy floats to come.

 Paying respect to the flag

 CANDY!!! Our kids know how to book it!  FYI if anyone wants to come to a Centerville parade hang with us, we have front row seats at our house and i rope off the ENTIRE sidewalk infront of our house just for our little family of 4.  We're on the sunnyside of the street but we can remedy that with a floor fan and a long extension cord running to the house.

 Picture of Sophie's favorite float:
Princesses

 And Jens's favorite "float": Monster Truck

 Our little princess with her very own glass slipper, one of the many fun things besides candy she scored from the parade.

 This guy knows how to multi-task!  Gotta love him :)

After the Parade Cory's brother Kelly and his family drove down from Logan to hang with us we had a little bbq in the backyard and watched the kids play in the pool.  Sophie and Jens love having their cousins come to visit!  Leah was busy clicking away with her camera that i decided i didn't need to take pictures with mine since i had her to do the job for me. :) 

Stay tuned for part two of our Fourth of July week celebration: ALPINE